Star Wars: Dark Galaxies
by Christopher Willings
Summary: What would have happened if Luke and Vader turned on the Emperor and killed him at the end of Return of the Jedi? This is the story of a galaxy ruled by father and son...and opposed by galaxy's last hope.
1. PART ONE: MALICE CHAPTER ONE

**sTAR WARs**

**DARK GALAXY**

Chris Willings

  


PART One

MALICE

CHAPTER ONE

**Ominous indicator lights of the deepest of reds pierced the obscurity of the Emperor's somber throne room, signaling the arrival of two of the most powerful beings the universe has ever known. The black lift tube slid open with a feral hiss as Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, and his bound son, the heir to the Jedi tradition, Luke Skywalker stepped quietly into the shadowy room that towered perilously high above the second Death Star battle station.**

Flanking the turbolift on both sides stood the Emperor's crimson-garbed sentinels, his royal guards. Armed with far more than the evident ceremonial force-pikes at their shoulders, the statuesque men paid the two no heed.

Across the short railed walkway that overlooked the frightful reactor core, and up the three meter staircase, sat a motionless, wicked throne that resembled a three-fingered clutching hand, turned to face the raging external star battle by way of a large circular view port. With no sound between the two, save for the tell-tale wheezing of the lord Darth Vader, the father and son ascended the way to the throne as it swiveled to face them. There, resting like a deadly arachnid in the web-like viewport, sat the zeyd-cloth robed Emperor Palpatine—a powerful Sith Master in his own right. When the two were standing before him, his apprentice genuflected to his master.

"Welcome young Skywalker," The vile master of the dark side greeted. "I have been expecting you."

Luke peered at the hooded figure defiantly, offering no words. Palpatine took no offense with the breech of etiquette and merely looked to the young Jedi's binders, saying, "You no longer need those."

He motioned ever so slightly with his finger and Luke's binders fell away, clattering to the floor.

Skywalker looked down at his own hands. They were now free to reach out and grab the Emperor's neck, but he fought to control his emotions. It was not the time too move against the foul old man—yet. Luke bided his time.

Now the Emperor dissolved his gaze on the boy and focused now beyond him, to his loyal protectors. "Guards, leave us."

With crack obedience, the two did an about face and disappeared into the nightmarish shadows of the chamber.

Looking back to Luke, he began, "I'm looking forward to completing your training. In time you will call me master."

Skywalker stared back in defiance. "You're gravely mistaken. You won't convert me as you did my father."

The Emperor came down from his throne and began to walk up close to Luke. "Oh no, my young Jedi. You will find that it is you who are mistaken," He looked into the boy's eyes and, for the first time, Skywalker could perceive the evil visage within the hood. "About a great-many-things."

"His lightsaber," Darth Vader spoke, extending a gloved hand.

His master received it. "Ah. A Jedi's weapon. Much like your father's," He said. "By now you know he can never be turned from the dark side…So will it be with you."

Luke gazed at Vader, then took in the Emperor with assurance. "You're wrong," He glanced at the view port towering behind them, but quickly returned to Palpatine. "Soon I'll be dead…and you with me." 

The Emperor laughed. "Perhaps you refer to the imminent attack by your rebel fleet."

Luke looked up sharply.

"I assure you, we are quite safe from your friends here." He ended with a sneer, then turned back towards his throne.

Vader looked at his son.

"Your overconfidence is your weakness." The Jedi snapped.

Palpatine stopped and turned back to him. "Your faith in your friends is yours."

"It is pointless to resist, my son." Vader told him.

"Everything that has transpired as done so according to my design," Palpatine said angrily from his throne. "Your friends—" He threw his finger behind him, "—up there on the Sanctuary Moon are walking into a trap. As is your rebel fleet!"

Luke was startled.

"It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band.

"An entire legion of my best troops awaits them." The old Sith Master leaned forward and mockingly added, "Oh…I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive." He leaned back, regaining his composure. "Come boy. See for yourself."

Through the circular window distant flashes of a vicious space battle in progress became evident. The rebel fleet of Nebulon frigates and Mon Calamari Star Cruisers was severely outnumbered by the overwhelming mass of Star Destroyers, the Super-class Star Destroyer, Executor, and the mighty skeletal berth of the uncompleted Death Star. There was no hope for the Alliance against those numbers.

"From here you will witness the final destruction of the Alliance and the end of your insignificant rebellion."

Luke, in utter torment, turned to see his lightsaber resting on the armrest of the throne, just waiting to be called to life and be used against the Emperor. The old Sith watched him and smiled, touching the weapon.

"You want this, don't you." He tempted. "Of course, the hate is swelling in you now. Take your Jedi weapon. Use it. Strike me down with it. Give in to your anger."

Skywalker resisted and turned away, back to the loosing battle outside.

"With each passing moment, you make yourself more my servant."

Vader silently watched Luke in his agony.

The Jedi faced Palpatine again. "No," He defied.

"It is unavoidable." The Emperor assured. "It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now mine."

Horrified, Luke watched the battle fireworks from the mammoth window. Another rebel ship exploded against grossly impenetrable deflector shield.

"As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station." Palpatine hit a button on his armrest and tilted his head to speak into the encased comlink. "Fire at will, Commander"

The Death Star's mighty superlaser powered for a titanic blast aimed a rebel cruiser. The green beam of planet destroying energy found its mark and completely de-atomized the Mon Calamarian battleship. There was a great disturbance in the Force as the brave rebel crew howled in fear before they were suddenly silenced. 

A dark ripple had emerged in the Force, a whole that could never be filled. It made Luke's stomach churn.

"Your fleet is lost. And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice,"

Skywalker stared hard at his lightsaber. His desire for it was almost palpable. With one smooth motion, Luke could have the weapon and vanquish a great evil force in the universe. He fought off the feeling and instead looked to his father in desperation. Vader gave a curt nod in agreement to all his master had declared.

"The Alliance will die…as will your friends." The Emperor added.

The young Jedi stared at his lightsaber once more. He almost couldn't resist striking the man down where he sat, if only to end his incessant taunting.

"Good. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!"

Luke tried to resist, but could stand no more. With one swift motion he called the saber to his hand, unleashed the yellow-green blade, and struck.

The Jedi was quick.

Vader was quicker.

With scarlet and green blades clashed before him, the Emperor let out a haunting laugh in triumph. He had won. Young Skywalker was now his to command!

After a moment, father and son began their fate-filled battle that would decide who was weak and who would stand beside the Emperor as he crushed the rebellion. Green and red lances of energy swooped and spun and twirled and crashed, turned sharply and struck more.

Palpatine reveled in the sheer entertainment of the duel. It served to show him that after all the decades of control, he was still the master of the dark side and no one could oppose his will. Anything he commanded would be so—no matter how grandiose. His cackling laugh continued.

Luke delivered a strong side kick the chest of his father, sending the Sith Lord plummeting down the dark staircase.

"Use your aggressive feelings boy!" Palpatine ordered. "Let the hate flow through you!"

Darth Vader stood upright and looked to his son. The Jedi nodded, and then turned to face Palpatine.

"The hate does flow through me, your highness," Luke began. "And it is hatred for you, Palpatine."

The Emperor was confused. Why did not the boy destroy his father? Vader was the enemy—not him.

The Sith apprentice ascended the stairway as he spoke, "For over three decades you planned the downfall of the Old Republic and the destruction of the Jedi Order," He came to rest next to his son. "As master of the Sith, Darth Sidious, you succeeded where others had failed. The galaxy rightfully belonged to the man who indeed was the master of guile."

"But you have become complacent, Palpatine," Skywalker revealed. 

Vader continued, "In your rise to power, nothing escaped your attention and everything transpired according to your design. You single-handedly orchestrated both sides of the Clone Wars, all to weaken the Republic and build your own private army. But that was all the work of Darth Sidious—a man that died the same time as Anakin Skywalker."

Palpatine could not believe what he was hearing. They were turning against him! Blasphemers! He gathered up the dark side and prepared to destroy them both.

"You are old and weak Palpatine. It is time that a stronger, more powerful ruler takes your place." Luke told him.

They had planned this whole thing, Palpatine realized. The entire time Skywalker was merely acting, buying his time until the two could destroy him. The old Sith would have nothing of the sort.

"It is time I became the master and you became no more." Vader said.

Father and son raised their weapons and methodically approached the decrepit emperor.

"No! Get back!" He ordered as they came closer. "Get back! I command you! I command you both!"

They refused.

Emperor Palpatine raised his hands and called upon the dark side of the Force to materialize in his hands. White-violet energy began to form at his fingers, but the hard crimson of Vader's lightsaber sliced through the dark side master's wrist with great ease.

Palpatine howled. "Death to you both!" He cursed. "Death to you—"

But before he could finish, Luke drove the point of his saber through the old man's chest. He mumbled a name as he spoke his last words, then gagged and fell from the throne, dead.

Darth Vader extinguished his lightsaber and replaced it at his side. Luke followed suit.

The Sith Lord, now the Sith Master, took his rightful place on the throne of the emperor. "You have done well, my son." He complimented.

Luke bent down on one knee and lowered his head in subordination. "Now you truly are the Dark Lord of the Sith." The fallen Jedi spoke. 

"And soon you will take my place as Sith apprentice and heir to the Empire, my son. But first the rebellion must be effaced, once and for all."

"As you command, Dark Lord." Luke told him. "It will not be long until the rebel fleet is destroyed and Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and the droids will be captured. But…"

Vader waited for him to continue.

"As I told you before, I wish to give the rebels a chance to surrender before we destroy them, father. Killing the Emperor is one thing, but the Alliance…They're my friends, misguided as their efforts are—but still people I care about."

Darth Vader was silent for a moment save for his breathing, then replied, "As you wish, my son. But if they do not surrender, you will destroy them. It is your job to protect this station from your comrades now. "

Luke took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and then replied reluctantly, "They will submit or die." 

"The shield is down! Commence attack on the Death Star's main reactor," commanded the stern voice of Admiral Ackbar over the open tactical comm of the Millennium Falcon.

The Corellian YT-1300 stock-light freighter was under the control of Lando Calrissian, with a stout Sullustan named Niem Numb as the copilot.

"We're on our way," Lando replied. "Red Group, Gold Group, all fighters follow me."

The dark skinned man turned to his copilot with a joyous chuckle. "I told you they would do it!"

The Falcon, followed by several smaller fighter craft, raced to the unfinished superstructure of the Death Star. They skim across the battle station's uncompleted axis, narrowly avoiding the pounding of twin turbolaser turrets as the ships make for the superstructure. Hot on their tails, two trios of TIE fighter and TIE interceptors dived down after them with blazing speed.

"I'm going in," Wedge Antilles reported from his X-wing.

"Here goes nothing," Lando said to himself.

Three X-wings, headed by Antilles, lead the way through the ever-narrowing shafts; the Falcon and four other rebel fighters followed close.

The TIEs dropped in after them, firing with all their abilities to score a direct hit and destroy one of the attackers. Lights imbedded in the structure flash wildly over the polished black helmets of the Imperial pilots.

"Now lock onto the strongest power source. It should be the power generator." Lando ordered over the broad shielded channel.

"Form-up and stay close," Wedge added. "We could loose space in here real fast."

As the groups veered around a precarious turn, one TIE fighter pilot did not have luck of his side as he smashed into the reinforced piping of the Death Star.

A TIE locked on to one of the X-wings that had fallen behind and blasted into space dust. It gave a brilliant flash of light that none of the pilots had time to notice.

"Split-up and head back to the surface," Calrissian ordered the fighters. "See if you can get a few of those TIE fighters to follow you."

"Copy, Gold Leader," the A-wing pilot replied as the ships peeled-off.

The TIE fighters followed them out, but two interceptors stayed behind to harass Lando and Wedge.

Calrissian had concentrated hard on just flying through the tunnels without crashing into the sides. But suddenly, he made a miss calculation and brought the ship too high. There was a loud thump from the dorsal hull of the Falcon.

Niem Numb yelped as the freighter's rectenna was smacked off.

"That was close," Lando gulped, dreadfully thinking back to his promise to Han not to get even a scratch on the ship. That was much more than a scratch.

_Sorry, Old Buddy._

Onboard the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, Home One, Admiral Ackbar looked on in another jolt of horror as the Death Star powered-up again a struck out at one of the rebel ships. He swiveled his elevated command chair to face one of the ships alien officers.

"Sir, we've lost another ship!"

He knew that. "Which one?"

"It was one of the frigates, sir."

Ackbar grimaced. That meant they only had Home One and another Nebulon frigate left. He pounded on the console of his command chair.

"Do our ships inside the Death Star have enough fuel to make the jump back to Sullust?"

The Calamari officer looked on his screens. "They do, sir. But should we risk retreating back there? The Empire will surely be waiting to finish us off!"

The Admiral was silent in thought. The man was right, they couldn't safely return to Sullust. If the Empire weren't waiting for them when they got there, they'd surely come before the remainder of the fleet had recovered.

"Find us a new rendezvous point," he ordered to the crew. "Transmit it to all ships as soon as possible. I'm ordering a retreat to all ships."

"Roger, sir."

"Admiral, we have TIE interceptors harassing our shields," Another crewman croaked. "If they're not stopped, the shields won't hold up. We'll never make it to clear space for a jump at this point."

"Get firing solutions on those fighters, quick!"

"Two more squadrons inbound! Shields down to twenty-percent," The alien officer cried.

"Helm, get us out of here! Jump to lightspeed!" Ackbar demanded.

"But sir, we'll crash right through that Star Destroyer! Surviving a jump through a capital ship is impossible!"

"Not impossible. Just do it. All power not being put into engines is to be put into the forward shields. Gravity, lights, life support, and all computers that are not on this bridge or in the medical deck! We can do with out all those functions for a few moments."

"Forward shields overloading at 250 percent, Admiral."

"Punch it!"

Home One darted straight into hyperspace through the hull of the Victory-class Star Destroyer _Griffin's Wrath_. The Imperial warship exploded in a brilliant flare of yellow, orange, and white. Metal shards burst out in every direction, slicing through the hulls of other destroyers. It was one final blow to the Empire. 

With the way clear, the remaining Rebel frigate recalled all her fighters and entered lightspeed. The brave souls still fighting in the Death Star superstructure were now on their own. 

The _Millennium Falcon raced just behind the smaller craft of Wedge Antilles' X-wing star fighter. The two ships made their way through the dangerous curves of the superstructure with the ease that only came to master pilots like them. Behind the rebel attackers, the TIE interceptors decreased their throttle and veered off when they got the chance._

"The squints have backed off," Wedge noted.

"I wonder why they would do that," Lando said in perplexity.

"I don't like it, Lando."

"Hey, you got no objections here, buddy."

Without further comment, the two hurried through the shafts until Lando's scanners got the reading they had been waiting for.

"We're coming up on the main reactor. Heads-up, Wedge."

There was no reply, only the usual communications static.

"Wedge? Do you get that?"

"I've got another ship on my sensors," he revealed. "It's not close enough to get a description."

"Copy. I'll see what I can get." There was a second of silence. "I don't recognize the design, Wedge. Some sort of TIE."

"Roger that," Wedge said. "I got it now. It's one of the Empire's new TIE defenders."

"What should I know about it?"

"It packs ion cannons, laser cannons, missile launchers, and shields. Looks like this one's outfitted with torp launchers."

"Well I'm not going to sit around to see it in action," Lando promised.

Under the control of Niem Numb, the dorsal quad-cannon pivoted to cover the Falcon's aft. Just as it locked into position, the strange new fighter came into view.

It had an elliptic cockpit viewport that poked out slightly, but still resembled the usual ball of the TIEs. Three curved solar panels, like inverted Interceptor wings, jutted out around the pilot and allowed it to receive more power than the other TIEs. It was a dangerous craft, only given to fighter aces.

"Lando. Wedge…This is Luke," Came over the ships' comlinks.

"Luke! Am I glad to see you!" Lando sounded.

"…You shouldn't be," The man replied in a cold, unemotional tone.

There was silence.

"What are you talking about, Luke?" Wedge finally asked.

"I have to stop you from destroying this battle station. You two will shut your ships down immediately and surrender. If you refuse, I will be forced to destroy you both."

"Luke, what's going on? What are you—"

"You have five seconds to oblige," The former Jedi announced. "One."

"Luke—" Wedge began. 

"Two. I have no wish to destroy you, Lando. But my loyalties are to my father now. Surrender."

Multiple TORPEDO LOCK messages scrolled across the Falcon's tactical screen. 

"What's going on, Luke?" Lando said in fearful, shaky voice, "Did you say your father?"

"Three. Darth Vader is my father. I have taken my place at his side and now that we have killed the Emperor, we will bring order to the galaxy once and for all, as father and son… Therefore I cannot allow you to proceeded," He explained. "Four."

"Hold on, Luke. Just hold on!"

"Five…You were warned, Lando. You'll have to take that to the grave now…Goodbye."

Three proton torpedoes launched from either side of the TIE defender. Each one locked onto the Millennium Falcon and armed to kill.

"Luke, no. Luke—!"

The projectile smashed through the ship, easily overwhelming the freighter's shields and reducing it into a ball of flames that died out as soon as the oxygen had been devoured.

"Luke! How could you? The Alliance…" Wedge cried.

"I serve the Empire now, old friend—A new Empire. If you surrender now, I will make sure you are treated with care when you are taken into custody and perhaps you could even join us one day. You would be a valuable asset to the Empire."

"Never! If you think what you're doing is any different from Palpatine's treachery, your gravely mistaken, Luke!" Wedge shouted. He changed frequency to that of a shielded channel with the command cruiser. "Home One, are you hearing this? Luke betrayed us! Repeat: Luke has betrayed us!"

"We hear you, Wedge," Admiral Ackbar replied. "Get out of there! We're sending you alternate hyperspace coordinates. Stan by."

As the two fighters emerged into the massive chamber that housed the main reactor, Wedge rolled his stern to starboard to avoid a deadly volley of laser fire. He switched his S-foils closed to gain extra speed as looked for an exit. He could never take out the reactor, now. Even if his now former friend wasn't on his tail. It had to be a combined attack of Wedge's protons and Lando's concussion missiles. 

As he came toward the reactor, his sadness and confusion was overpowered by his fighter pilot instincts. There was time to be sad later, when he wasn't under fire. His first thought was to get Luke off his tail and then try to fight it out, but reality quickly set in. Wedge was an ace pilot and a veteran of the Rebellion at twenty-five years old and if he had learned only one thing during his service it was that few could fly against a Jedi—or whatever Luke was now—and survive. Dog-fighting Luke was out of the question. And Jedi or not, Wedge didn't know if he could pull the trigger on the hero of the rebellion and dear friend. The only option was to run like he had never run before. And maybe, just maybe—if lady luck still smiled on Wedge Antillies—he might make it out of this in on piece…but that was extremely unlikely. 

He switched off his outbound comlink and spoke to his R2 unit. "Divert power from the laser cannons to the aft shields."

RIGHT AWAY, COMMANDER ANTILLES…

"Don't worry," Wedge said more to himself than to his droid navigator. "We'll get out of this."

The dark side was surging through Luke's veins. The new power he felt was exhilarating and only getting better. With it, he found the strength to destroy the Emperor. With it, he found the courage to kill one of his dear friends. With it, he would destroy another. With it, he could defy the galaxy. 

No longer was he vulnerable to others. Soon, with training under his father, the Dark Lord of the Empire, he would be completely unstoppable. The dark side was power, pure and unforgiving. Luke made a point to serve it well, to bring law and order to the discord of the galaxy.

The energy pulsed through his black Imperial flight-suit, needed to fly in the life support free TIE defender. It concentrated on his hands as he pulled the trigger to unleash a quartet of green blasts to rip apart the enemy X-wing.

The ship, piloted by the undisputed best aviator in the Rebel Alliance, veered away, but was caught by one of the beams. It splashed against the fighter's shields, but couldn't penetrate to the armor beneath.

It was of no consequence. Wedge was a fantastic pilot with luck always on his side, but he was no match for the dark side. The next shot would ring true—Skywalker could feel it. He fired again.

Two bolts struck with optimum power and caused the shields to collapse, but still the fighter took no damage.

Perhaps luck did particularly favor Wedge.

The X-wing soared into another shaft, the defender close on the man's thrusters. 

If Wedge were not destroyed quickly, he would escape. This shaft led straight to an open port some kilometers away, a distance the ships could cover in less than a minute.

Luke fired again. Wedge spun 180 degrees and evaded three of the beams, but one found its mark on one of his top thrusters.

Luke suppressed a laugh. It was the same damage Wedge had sustained at the battle to destroy the first Death Star. But he wouldn't fly back to base this time—no.

The port became visible up ahead. It was now or never. Wedge had to die.

The defender's targeting cursor showed a lock. One squeeze of the hair trigger and Wedge would be gone. Such a waste, Luke thought with deep regret.

Good bye, friend. May the Force be kind to your wayward soul.

Sweat beaded at Luke's brow. The dark side told him to fire—destroy the rebel—for the good of the Empire. He got ready. His finger began to depress on the trigger.

The port wasn't far. His systems screamed of a lock-on for a direct hit…

No.

Luke sighed as he loosened-up on the control stick and sat back. He couldn't do it. He couldn't kill Wedge—one of his comrades, his fellow Rogue. They had been through too much together. He couldn't do it. Luke had failed.

Wedge's X-wing burst out of the hole like a hawkbat out of hell and never stopped. Luke drifted out behind him, watching the ship fly away.

He couldn't do it. Just couldn't do it.

He couldn't kill Wedge. Not Wedge.

He had failed.

"I've failed, father." Luke said over his comlink.

"Do not concern yourself with one fighter pilot, my son. Your plan to lower the shield and trap the rebels succeeded as expected. The Death Star is saved thanks to you."

Luke nodded solemnly, even though no one could see.

"Return, my son. There is much still left to settle."


	2. PART ONE: MALICE CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

**Down on the Sanctuary Moon of the planet Endor, the battle to destroy the Death Star shield generator raged on. Stormtroopers were firing on Ewoks with sophisticated weapons while their furry little adversaries skulked up behind the skeletal white armored Imperial troopers, bashing them over their helmeted heads with large clubs. **

A mired gray AT-ST Scout walker marched with resounding buzzing as it clomped through the undergrowth blasting Ewoks with twin laser cannons as it went. 

An Ewok warrior gave the signal, and a pile of hidden logs, high up on an adjacent hill, was cut loose. The hardwood tumbled under the walker's feet, causing it to slip and slide until it finally toppled over with a great crash. 

Elsewhere, a scout bike raced past, but was lassoed with a heavy vine. The other end of the vine was tied to a tree, causing the bike to swing around in ever-tightening circles until it ran out of rope and crashed into the trees with a huge explosion that ripped through the tall woody plant. 

Chewbacca, Wookiee hero of the Rebel Alliance, swung on a thick jungle vine, meaning to soar to the small roof of one of the walkers while two Ewoks clung tightly to him like new born children. 

Suddenly, the scarlet bolt of an Imperial sharpshooter slashed through the vine and sent the Wookiee and his new companions falling to the lush green vegetation at the forest floor. To their luck, the shrubbery below cushioned their descent and prevented any serious injury.

Before they could rise and retreat, the tan-uniformed sniper emerged from the bushes with a squad of stormtroopers flanking him on both sides. With a gallant roar, the massive furry alien threw dirt and rocks up at them. The troops instinctively cowered at the hail of debris, allowing Chewbacca to scoop up the Ewoks and hurried them the opposite way.

Blaster beams shot through the greenery and dropped one of the little bipeds as a second squad of shock troopers pushed their way out to intercept them.

The stormtrooper sergeant with the sniper fired on the second Ewok then tried to blast Chewbacca, but his weapon was batted down by the sharpshooter. The latter reminded the man of their distinct orders to take the beast alive.

Four men cautiously surrounded the Wookiee and tried to restrain him. Chewie growled and batted the closest one away as if the man weighed nothing at all. The sniper barked orders to the troops to hurry it up and get control of the monster immediately.

Chewie tried to defend himself against the onslaught, but the sharpshooter lost his cool and pumped a stun bolt into their prisoner.

"Get this thing chained and out of my sight, now!" The sniper shouted.

"Yes, sir."

The three wires that controlled the large double sliding doors that led to the Death Star shield generator sparked as the connection was made. With a loud whoosh, a second heavy blast door crashed down in front of the first. General Han Solo frowned and turned back to the wires again. 

Leia Organa exchanged blazing shots with stormtroopers in the bushes, then suddenly cried out in pain, her shoulder hit by an energy blast. With a short cry, she fell to the duracrete floor of the entryway. 

"Oh Princess Leia, are you alright!" Cried See-Threepio from the other side, leaving his now damaged counterpart Artoo-Detoo for the moment to come to the woman's aide.

Han slumped down next to her and grabbing her arm gently, said, "Let me see it."

"It's not bad," Leia assured.

"Freeze!" Sounded a monotone voice from the forest.

A twinge of dread echoed in Han's gut. He and Leia did as told.

"Oh, dear!" Threepio sounded as he threw his metallic golden arms in the air. 

"Don't move!" A similar sound yelped.

Two stormtroopers rushed over and trained their standard issue blaster rifles on them. Leia glanced at Han then her hidden pistol. He grinned when he realized her plan.

"I love you," Han murmured, still a bit surprised.

She smiled, "I know."

"Hands up! Stand up!"

Han stood up slowly with his hands raised high in the air. He turned, exposing the blaster in Leia's hand to the troopers. She pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession, dropping them both before they could react.

As Han turned back to Leia again, his ears caught the whoop. He looked up to see an imposing Scout walker come to rest in front of him. Its deadly weaponry aimed straight at him.

"Stay back," He told Leia, raising his hands once again. The sick feeling returned to him again and he knew it would be setting up shop for quite awhile now.

Through a speaker that Han couldn't see, the booming voice of the pilot shouted, "Drop your weapons!"

Leia let go of her blaster pistol and rose to the side of Solo. Though it pained her to, the former princess of Alderaan lifted both her hands. She knew the pilot wouldn't accept the fact that she had been shot to stop her from showing her unarmed hands.

Seemingly from thin air, dozens upon dozens of stormtroopers boiled out from all angles to bear on them. A louder thump, thump, thump, followed them as the head of a mammoth AT-AT Imperial walker poked it cannon baring "head" out into the open.

An officer ran up from the front of the crowd, blaster trained, and quickly pulled Solo's pistol out of its low slung holster and threw it out of anyone's reached. He kicked Leia's gun over to join it.

A platoon of stormtroopers, led by a tan-uniformed man with a high-powered rifle slung over his shoulder, emerged from the obscurity. Marching out in front of them was saddened Chewbacca, deprived of his utility bandoleer and instead shackled head to furry toe in durasteel chains. He gave a low, mournful howl as he saw his friends had also been captured.

More troops came to Han and Leia and attached binders to their wrists.

"I knew this wasn't going to work," Han said with a sorrowful sigh.

Leia was silent as they hustled them off to the carriage of the giant Imperial walker. See-Threepio was deactivated and fitted with a restraining bolt before he was carted off after them.

"Sir," One of the stormtrooper sergeants said. "Do we take the slagged R2 unit as well?"

The highest-ranking officer gave it a quick glance, then said, " Lord Vader said nothing of droids. The gold one can be used after it has its memory wiped, but the astromech is scrap. Leave it."

"Yes, sir."

The officer turned to see a communications sergeant sprinting toward him from the lowered belly of the AT-AT. "Sir, I have just received a message from Lord Vader. He demands an update."

"Excellent, sergeant. Tell him that we've captured the rebel commanders and will be departing for the Death Star as soon as the skies are clear." 

"Yes, sir… He also has given an order to lower the deflector shield immediately."

"Lower the shield? For what purpose?" The man asked himself, then came to his senses. "Then we must lower the shield without haste, sergeant. Go to it!"

"Yes, sir," The noncom scurried away.

The officer looked to the other imperials, "What are all of you standing there for? Let's get these rebel scum back to base!"

The stormtrooper snapped to alertness and followed their orders. As they entered the Walker, a single tear rolled down Leia's cheek.

The Rebellion was lost.

"Shuttle _Justice, you are clear to land in bay 14. Deactivating the magnetic field now."_

The pristine white Lambda-class Imperial shuttle began its approach to docking bay 14, slowly raising the two large wings to meet with the massive fin on top. It came in on repulsorlifts and lowered its twin, leg-like landing gear to touchdown on the polished durasteel floor.

A platoon of stormtroopers rose up on an ascending platform beside the ship and took their places to stand watch over the being s that emerged as the landing ramp smacked silently on the ground. Two stormtroopers walked down, followed by their commanding officer, then Chewbacca, still shackled came with a trooper escort. Han and Leia followed with binders clapped around their wrists, tailed by four more stormtroopers that brought with them a floating gurney with See-Threepio lying lifelessly on top.

A Death Star officer met them on the deck and eyed them with extreme prejudice, his leer mostly on Chewbacca. "Take them to the detention block. Separate cells. Deliver the droid to Operations," The black uniformed man ordered. "Allow no harm to come to the woman. But these two," He eyed Han and Chewie. "Lord Vader merely demands that they not be killed."

"Vader," Han murmured with no surprise.

"Silence, scum!" The stormtrooper nearest to him sound. He struck the reformed smuggler in the stomach with the stock of his rifle.

Chewie snarled as Han went down gagging for air as the wind was knocked out of him.

Leia bit back a response and looked away

The officer gave a wave of his black gloved hand, "Take them away."

The former princess of the planet Alderaan, Leia Organa, paced back and forth in the cramped detention cell for which she was now imprisoned in, still clothed in her fatigues sans any weapons or tools. It had been hours, she knew not just how many, since she had arrived at the horrid battle station of death; and still nothing had happened. The waiting and dread of an inevitable confrontation maddened her deeply.

What were they waiting for, she continued to wonder? Surely Emperor Palpatine could hardly contain himself with the prospect of tormenting her with the Alliance's defeat. This was his day of ultimate triumph; the rebellion against his government was done for. 

Organa had no knowledge of the actual fate of the Alliance. But a gut feeling, a thing she refused to call the Force, made her believe that some parts of the fleet had escaped. It was all she could hope for in this desperate hour.

Leia didn't care what happened to her. Let the Emperor and…Vader—she wasn't about to call him anything else—do there worst to her. They couldn't make her feel any worse than she did right now. Her only fear about dying was that she knew she was a powerful leader and the Rebellion needed her. Her lost would only deepen the blow they were dealt today and they didn't need that now. That was fine, because Leia wasn't about to lie down and die. Her death would have to be brought about by a defensive attack from a blaster file or the intercepting blade of…Vader.

She gulped her anxiety down. That name gave her double the pain now than it had a few days ago. That man—that terrible, terrible monstrosity of a man—was her long lost fa—No! Bail Organa was her father. He raised her into the strong woman she was this day. Bail was a brave man who was one of the firsts to openly defy the Emperor. Not the man who succumbed to him, the man who became both a monster and such a danger to his own children that they were hidden from him the second after they were born. Curse him! Curse Darth Vader a thousand times over!

Organa fumed. She never once believed she would be in this situation right now. The plan, as daring as it was, had seemed like it was going to work. What went wrong? Was the Empire so invincible?

She had no way of knowing anything and it enraged her to the point of near insanity. What had happened to her friends? What was the fate of Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, Wedge—of Han, Chewie, Lando, the droids, and Luke…There was a good question! —What had happened to Luke? He had gone to face his father and the Emperor. Was he alive? Dead?

No, not dead, Leia somehow knew. But it was quite clear that Luke had not defeated Vader or the Emperor because if he had, they wouldn't be in this situation. But where was he?

She finally settled on the large block that was supposed to be a prisoner's cot and laid her head low. There she sat, weary, but unable to sleep at a time like this. She waited for twenty minutes until the door to the cell slid open with only a slight sound. A young man in black walked in as she raised her head.

For a split second, Leia thought she saw Darth Vader, but the image flickered back into her mind. 

"Luke!" She cried as she saw who it really was.

Joy and excitement washed over her in an instant Leia jumped up and rushed over to envelop her brother in a warm hug. She got half way, and then Luke raised a hand in front of her. Leia stopped, her wide smile leaving as confusion returned. "What's going on, Luke?"

Now she noticed the stern face he wore. There was certain sadness in his eyes as he looked at her and replied, "The future, Leia. The future."

Leia shook her head, "I—I don't understand. Where's Vader, the Emperor?"

His expression turned harsh. "The Emperor's dead, Leia. I killed him."

Leia couldn't keep her face from betraying her feelings. She was utterly stunned and even more bewildered. In contrast, Luke was stone cold, as if he no longer was interested in that bit of news.

"And…Vader?"

"Our father is as healthy as he has been for the last decade. It is imperative that you come with to speak with him," Luke told her. "It was with his help that I killed the Emperor."

That instant, Leia understood exactly what she was looking at. She gasped, her skin paled as she covered her gaping mouth and she backed away. Luke stood silent in his black attire.

"You've…" She couldn't speak. "You've—"

"I have taken my rightful place at our father's side and fulfilled my destiny."

His sister was baffled. "No…No!"

"Come with me, Leia," Luke said as he reached out his gloved hand. "Your destiny awaits."

She didn't move, just stared wide in disbelief.

Luke crossed his arms. "I don't want to have to force you to come, but if you don't, I will make you."

Seeing that she refused to move, Luke motioned to two Death Star troopers outside. The black helmeted men walked in, trained their pistols on Leia and forced her out with them.

"You should be happy, Leia," Luke told her as they made their way through the Death Star detention block. "It is a new galaxy, now. From this point on, things will be different. Nothing can stop the Empire…When the Death Star is completed, no planet would dare join the Alliance and for the first time in many years, there will be order."

Leia had regained some composure and now she was boiling with anger over the situation again. She looked to her brother and once dear friend as she did Vader on the first Death Star. She would find out soon just how similar times were.

"You speak as if the Empire is helping people instead of persecuting the defenseless and promoting xenophobia," She snapped.

Luke, still ahead of her and leading the way, did not turn to look when he spoke. "Your anger and fear are growing. The change is already beginning inside you. Much to our father's and my delight," He commented as they stepped into a turbolift and ascended. "But the Empire you speak of has died with Palpatine. Father has told me of his plans for the future, which was what originally led me to join him. He does not have any particular distaste when it comes to non-humans, unlike Palpatine. From now on they will receive the same treatment as humans."

That threw Leia back a bit. If Luke was telling the truth, then maybe the Empire had changed. Could it resemble the Old Republic? Her instincts told her otherwise. Her brother and Vader drew strength from the dark side, the corrupt side, of the Force. There had to be more to it.

"And how will the people be treated?" 

Luke said nothing as they departed the lift tube, then finally he replied tersely, "There will be order."

Leia knew exactly what that meant. The population of the galaxy would not regain their freedoms and would continue to fear their government that would be forced upon them. It was Grand Moff Tarkin's doctrine as well as the official slogan of the Empire: Rule through fear. And if what Luke had told her a while back was true, father and son united in the dark side was certainly something to fear.

_You could have that power too, an unfamiliar voice whispered in her mind. __Accept your emotions. Do not suppress them. Use them to your advantage and ultimate power will be yours…_

Luke could feel the dark side beckoning to his sister and even if he couldn't, he could see she was distracted—listening to some unseen sound.

"Do as it says, Leia. If you refuse the call, great pain will follow. Embrace it now before it's too late."

Leia didn't respond. Was he right? Did some form of pain come from resisting the dark side? Luke had never spoken of anything like that.

'That's not what I meant, Leia," Luke told her as if he could read her mind. "Like I said, accept you destiny as I did and you will never have to find out what I was referring to…Please."

A question entered her mind just then, "Why? Why do you two need me?"

"You don't want to know the answer to that, I assure you. Please, trust me. Everything will be better if you do."

The bridge of the Death Star loomed closer now, visible at the end of the dark hallways.

"Tell me," She demanded.

Luke shook his head in disbelief. "We don't need you, Leia. But if you do not serve our cause, you are a threat to it and will be destroyed. Our father gives you a choice because you are his daughter."

They stopped at the doors to the bridge, and Luke turned to face her. "This is your last chance," Luke told her.

"Never," Leia said curtly, then turned her head away.

Luke frowned and gave a disappointed sigh, "Then remember that I warned you."

As the doors slid open, it revealed a room washed in darkness. The sparsely placed lights and technical stations did very little to expel the shadows and hid the personnel that controlled the stations vital functions. A massive viewport stretched from one end of the bulkhead ten meters away offered the only illumination in the chamber. Slightly eclipsed by an unwavering dark mass of a man, the window displayed that the Death Star had drifted far from its orbit around the Sanctuary Moon of the planet Endor.

Was this place darker than the bridge in the original Death Star, Leia wondered? She realized her assumption was correct. Obviously the darkness was meant to set the tone of the affair. And why had they moved away from Endor?

The group continued through the room and came to rest a dozen meters away from the viewport and the lone figure. Only now, in the silent close proximity, could the sound be heard. The labored, machine assisted breath of the Lord Darth Vader. It was all that was heard for at least a minute.

"It is a pleasure that you grace us with your presence…daughter," Vader cut through the utter stillness. "Obi-Wan was a fool for hiding you from me."

There was long silence again. Did he expect her to respond? Whether he did or didn't, Leia resolved not to speak—yet.

"Your brother has realized his true potential, as you all ready know. There is much I have to teach him and even more I must teach you. But only after you expose yourself to the Force can you truly begin to comprehend your importance," He continued. "In time you will know that the Force goes far beyond that of good and evil—far beyond a light side or a dark side. To believe you can label the Force so simply is foolhardy…"

"Is this your sales pitch?" Leia asked. "I've already heard his and would not be seduced. It'll be the same with you."

Finally, the Dark Lord of the Sith turned around to stare down at her. Leia had forgotten just how intimidating the man really was in person. His gaze, while hidden behind the polarized lenses of his helmet, was penetrating to say the least. The dark side wrapped around him like a vise grip and further extended his frightful aura. 

"You will join us," He assured. "I shall make you. Together as father, daughter, and son, we will conquer the galaxy and bring order the chaos that threatens the people."

Leia stood firm. "I will not join you."

Darth Vader bent down slightly and eyed her. "There are methods to unleashing your anger, my daughter."

"You can't turn me," She said with as much certainty as she could muster. "I haven't made a connection with the Force."

"You are wrong. All ready you use your awakened powers to defy me. Granted they have not completely manifested themselves inside you yet, but all that is need is a correlation. And as you will see, your actions weigh heavily on the galaxy," Vader turned his head to the side, to some unseen person. "Is the Death Star ready, Moff Jerjerrod?"

A man in the olive-gray uniform and cap of the Imperial navy stepped from the obscurity. "It is, milord."

The Darth turned back to her and awaited a reply. Leia looked out the window, then at her…father. "I won't fall for your bluff."

"Good. It will be nice to know that when I do feint, you will not be so easily tricked."

She shook her head, not entirely believing the words she spoke. "You won't destroy Endor. You'd loose the deflector shield. Only a fool would sacrifice such an advantage."

"I find it almost touching that you would fear for this station's safety, but the shield has served its purpose and is now obsolete."

"How can you make use of a planet destroying weapon if it must cower in the orbit of a backwater moon," Luke chimed in. "And who would attack the Death Star? The rebel fleet? I doubt that two capital ships and a handful of fighters will cause a problem. No, it will be many years before the rebellion can get back on its feet again." 

When he saw that there would be no further argument, Vader pivoted back to the viewport. "Very well, Moff Jerjerrod. You may fire when ready."

He nodded briskly, then looked to the black-encased gunners hidden off to the sides. "Fire."

"What!"

The unforgiving green beam of the Death Star superlaser reached out with its death grip and smashed the unprotected moon into oblivion. The giant debris stopped just short of striking the battle station. Huge chunks veered dangerously close to the viewport.

Leia hadn't noticed though. She had turned away in disgust and woe. First Alderaan was destroyed, now Endor! First her real father, family and friends, now the Ewoks, whatever life also inhabited the moon, and Artoo—he'd been left at the bunker! There would be no rebuilding him now. That droid was a real friend. Organa felt a strange emptiness that she'd never felt before—A silencing that she couldn't quite describe. As if many voices had suddenly cried out in fear and then were suddenly stilled.

Vader's voice cut through her thoughts as she looked back. "How many more star systems will be destroyed in your name, Daughter?" he asked. "With each planet that is silenced, more blood spills on your hands. They all died because of your foolish ideals of freedom, you must know that."

Leia gritted her teeth and held back any scorns that were shooting through her mind. That was just what he wanted and she wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

Vader drew back as if he had had a sudden thought, then moved his mask close again. "Perhaps my methods to realize your destiny are misguided," He told her, then walked around the group. "Perhaps the key lies not in the quick death of billions unbeknownst to you and the death of worlds," The troops prodded Leia with their rifles to force her to follow. 

Luke took up the rear as they left the bridge and retracted the steps back to the turbolift. The Sith Lord continued, "No, I will take away those that are the source of your strength and hope. A meager two beings."

Leia was puzzled as they exited the lift tube, but only because she would not admit what she all ready knew would happen.

The detention block they arrived to was somewhat different from those Leia had seen on other Imperial vessels, the first Death Star, or her own cell on this one. There was a darkened black tubular corridor like all the others, but this one's cells were much sparser and well defended by robotic guns mounted at each interval. Down at the end of the tunnel was a sliding panel of a door that was quite obviously their destination. 

No more was said as the precession moved through the portal at the end and halted just inside. Leia cringed at the smell of burned flesh and ozone. The walls were gray, sheer bulkheads streaked with blaster scorches and multiple colors of blood all around. No one else seemed to take notice as they pushed her to the center of the room.

Vader placed his hands on his hips and spoke, "This is your last chance to join us, my daughter."

Leia turned around prepared to be executed.

Darth Vader nodded to a savage looking man in a black uniform that was stationed next to a panel of buttons and levers. The scarred-faced officer gave a salute in reply and went to work. He pulled to levers on the panel, causing a twin set of thick black poles of durasteel to rise up from the ground, a few meters from Leia's face. The sight caused her to almost drop to the floor in horror as she gasped and exploded with tears. "Han! Chewie!"

There, attached to the two posts respectively, were a battered and beaten Han Solo and Chewbacca. Han's clothes were torn and bloody in to many places to count. His face was covered in dirt and blood ran down from his mouth. Chewbacca, considerably worse, had fur that was matted with plasma where it wasn't singed and blistering. Several foreign objects were sticking from his arms, legs, and torso. It looked as it both of them had more than a few broken bones.

The Wookiee gave a weak howl in recognition as he coughed out blood.

Han, barely living much less conscious, found the strength to raise his head. The convulsions in his body showed just how painful the act was. "…Le…" he struggled to find the breath to speak, "Leia? Lu…Luke?"

Leia looked back at her father and brother with daggers then attempted to run to Han's side. The guards got a firm hold on her, sending a jolt of pain up her right arm, and stopped her.

"No," Vader ordered. "Let her go."

The former princess of the planet Alderaan shrugged them off and ran to the man she loved. She wrapped her arms around him, with sent a grunt from him."

Chewbacca barked again, and Han echoed his speech in basic, "What…what's going…going on?" his voice was a whisper.

Leia just held him close as she cried.

Luke came over and looked at Leia and Han sincerely. "They're in a lot of pain, Leia. From the moment they came here they have been tortured and beaten. But it doesn't have to go on. Just say the word and Han and Chewie will be taken to bacta tanks to recover. From there, we can discuss what will be done with them. But you must agree to join us—nothing else right now—just agree to come with us. If only you were willing to hear the things I heard, you wouldn't be fighting us right now."

Han coughed. "Le-Leia," he called in a barely audible tone. Leia bent over so he could speak in her ear. "Don't…don't…don't do it. Think…about," Han grunted in pain, "…the galaxy…The All-Alliance."

With the superior hearing of a Wookiee, Chewbacca could hear what his partner was saying and growled an agreement to sacrifice them for the good of the galaxy.

"Prom…proms…promise me Lei-Le-Leia," he coughed again, "…that you…won't give…up. Promise me!"

She nodded up and down frantically as her tears rolled down her cheek. 

The short conversation went unheard to Darth Vader and Luke. "What is your answer?" her father asked. "Your life or theirs?"

"Stay away from them!" Leia snapped.

"Your anger and fear rises, Daughter," He commented. "It will not be long now. You only require one final push before you are released to the dark side."

The tall Dark Lord of the Sith looked to the officer near the controls. "Release General Solo and the Wookiee."

"As you command, my lord."

In seconds, the dingy metal coils that had wrapped so tightly around the two, slithered back into the post with snake-like hissing. Han dropped to the ground with a thump; Leia stayed with him as she realized his left leg was broken and unable to hold him.

Chewbacca howled as he was forced to stand on his badly injured leg, but was able to stay upright. He tried to summon up some bit of lasting strength and channeled it into rage.

"You three are dismissed," Vader said to the troopers behind him. The men came to attention and saluted—though Vader didn't care to witness it—then departed. 

With Vader the only target that the Wookiee knew of, Chewbacca gave a gallant roar as he exposed both his razor sharp teeth and claws then limped at his best possible speed to the black armored menace.

The Sith stood firm as the alien rampaged toward him, then, in the blink of an eye, side-stepped and brought his blazing lightsaber to life. The being that was more-machine-than-man swung his scarlet blade diagonally and severed the alien in two. Mortally wounded at the waist, Chewbacca fell twice to the floor. There was little blood as the blade had cauterized the Wookiee's flesh, but that little bit merely blended with what had all ready spilled on the floor.

"Chewie!" Leia cried, losing all but the last bit of control. Vader could sense it, much to his chagrin. Under his helmet, he sneered. 

"You murderer! Damn you! Damn you to hell!"

Beside Leia and Han, Luke clenched his fist as he tried to force himself to not turn away from the terrible and gruesome act. To be a Sith Lord, nothing had to affect him. It was for the good of the galaxy, he kept telling himself. The Alliance did not understand that the galaxy had become too chaotic for democracies. The order of the Empire was needed to maintain balance. The Alliance was willing to die—that much he fiercely understood now—for their ideas of freedom, so nothing else could be done to stop them from ruining the galaxy. His teeth were grinding in horror, but otherwise, he gave no notice that the move affected him.

As the Dark Lord put away his lightsaber, he raised his left hand with a closed fist. Han Solo grabbed at his throat in a vain attempt to release the grip of the dark side on his windpipe. It was robbing him of the little breath he had left. Leia looked on in abhorrence, then turned to her father with a pleading face. "Make it stop! Make it stop, damn it!"

"Make your decision," He replied.

Leia swallowed all her feelings and prepared to give up the galaxy for Han's life. But then, with his last bit of energy, Solo grabbed hold of her arm to get her attention. And with his last breath, he gave Leia a look that contained a thousand messages within it. Remember your promise. Remember the innocent people of the galaxy. The Alliance needs you. Be strong. They can't survive without you. Escape from here. Be strong. Don't ever give up. I love you. Be strong. I love you…

With that, the life faded from Han's eyes as he drifted into a forever slumber. Leia merely sat there crying and stroking his head in her lap. The image of Han's face, the sounds of his voice telling her to promise him to never give in, and all the memories of the happier times they shared rolled through Leia's mind for, it seemed, forever. "Your friends are lost, and the Alliance is dead. We are all that is left of your family," Vader told her. "You have no one else. Join us."

Leia looked into the lifeless eyes and gently closed them. She pulled in a deep breath. The death of Han and Chewbacca had an opposite effect from what her father and brother hoped. No, she would never join them as long as she had breath in her body. She made a promise to Han to never give up. Never surrender. Leia was going to live. She was going to escape her prison. She would find what was left of the Rebellion. She was going to return and destroy the Death Star and the Empire. And if that meant killing her brother and father, so be it! Leia was going to bring peace to all the lost souls that the Empire created.

Leia wiped away her tears and sniffed. "Never," she replied calmly then wiped more tears. "Never. You'll have to kill me."

Vader and Luke stared at her and knew through the Force that she had truly made her decision. The Dark Lord stood there a moment than replied, "That can be arranged."

He accessed the comlink built into his armor and spoke into a direct channel with Moff Jerjerrod. "Set course for Mon Calamari, Commander. It shall be our first military target."

  



	3. PART ONE: MALICE CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

Imperial Captain Snyder reclined comfortably in his clone leather chair inside the small box that was the docking control room in TIE fighter bay 14. His lieutenant, a short paunchy man, was placed two meters from him, drumming his fingers on a keyboard. 

What a day, Snyder thought to himself. Since the early morning the hard faced imperial commander had frantically ran his squadrons through hectic battle procedures. Over six squads of fighters (two had been lost at the Battle of Endor) had flown out of the bay to intercept the few defenses of the watery world of Mon Calamari. There wasn't much of a fight, only two star cruisers and a few dozens snub fighters against the awesome might of the Death Star. Nonetheless, only two squadrons had returned to Bay 14.

The Captain clenched a black glove fist. The accursed rebels had killed many good pilots over the last few days. But the Empire had shown them that they were still insignificant and easily crushed. The Calamari were no different. They were fishy flies that were easily batted away with near impunity. In the end, all their ships, all their people, all their hopes and courage could not deflect the planet-cracking superlaser and save their rebellious world. The Rebs could rest assured that they would receive no new starships from that system. Like Alderaan and Endor, Mon Calamari was no more. Wiped clean by the purifying heat of the most destructive force man (and alien slaves) had ever created. 

With such a weapon, no planet dared to openly protest or rebel against the New Order. Therefore, the Alliance would receive no aide from anyone—who would dare to? The Rebellion—what was left of it—was finished. The Golden Age was just around the corner. But that was hardly Captain Snyder's concern at the moment.

Fatigue overran the captain's body. It was late and he was grappling with sleep. The struggle was worsened by the thought that he couldn't leave his post and finally get some rest until his daily report was complete and logged into the computers for his superior's inspection. He had yet to even start the log. 

Snyder's eyes were trained on the wall-mounted chronometer before him. In forty-five minutes he would be off duty—that is if he finishes his report. But it was three quarters of an hour between him and sleep. 

Tomorrow, he had designated leave time. As was the same for everyone else who had had a part in the battles of Endor and Mon Calamari. It was no trip to a resort world though—far from it. The vacation consisted merely of two days for rest and relaxation. Snyder liked to think of the gesture as a gift from the station commander, Moff Jerjerrod to the loyal and courageous soldiers of the Galactic Empire, but he knew that was not the case. The leave was simply a decision to let the men get a few days rest so that they wouldn't kill themselves by handling dangerous tasks half-asleep. And again, not that they cared about the lives of the crew particularly, but it took a lot of people to control this ultimate weapon and it wouldn't do to have them fall asleep or commit a fatal error on the job. 

Still tough, it was two days of rest and no worries. He would have no responsibilities. No worries about docking-bay maintenance and no idiotic, bumbling stormtroopers to foul up a situation—Snyder never liked the idea of cloned troopers. And most importantly, no Darth Vader or his former Rebel son.

The Captain chuckled to himself. The young lieutenant disregarded it.

Snyder couldn't be too sure why he laughed suddenly. But it had to be either one of two things. Possibly, it could be the thought that Darth Vader was the new emperor or…what did he want to be called…Dark Lord? Yes, that was the title. Snyder didn't quite understand it but the scuttlebutt around the station was that it had to do with the whole Sith thing. Then again, the captain probably was just going a bit insane from lack of sleep.

_Oh well, the imperial captain told himself. _Best to get this report done if I want my liberty tomorrow_._

He yawned and turned the swiveling chair to his data console. He cracked his fingers loudly and was going to begin when suddenly a rhythmic tone pierced the dead silence in the control room. The red LED on the panel beside the lieutenant caught both their attentions.

The black uniformed officer read the news off a data screen. "Unidentified fighter has just entered Mon Calamari space, Captain."

Snyder nodded as the room's intercom clicked on, both men stood at attention though no one could see them. "Bay 14, you have orders—"

"Wait. I'll do it myself, Lieutenant," Moff Jerjerrod sounded in the background. "I don't want any mistakes…Captain—Snyder, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"I trust you are aware of the Z-95 Headhunter approaching."

"Yes, sir."

"The trajectory puts it near your fighter bay. Therefore I am leaving the problem to you. But I warn you, the Dark Lord has expected this ship and he will be briefed by you if this is screwed-up. Do not fail our new ruler and earn your leave tomorrow. Jerjerrod out." 

The comm switched off as Snyder placed a hand on his throat. If anything went wrong, he knew he would be clenching it in terror soon enough. 

With a ghostly white face, Snyder turned about to his lieutenant. "Deploy One Flight of squadron 2-0 contiguously, Daubenspeck."

"Right away, sir," the man agreed. He set to work alerting Devil Squadron's One Flight. No doubt was in the corpulent man that the fly boys were snoozing away, most likely recovering from intoxication from their little victory celebration earlier today. Daubenspeck never liked the hotshot TIE pilots.

Buzzed or not, the pilots of 2-0 were imperial-trained soldiers and were on the scene only moments after the call went out. They were the best pilots in Bay 14 with a great service record. Hopefully, they wouldn't mess-up a simple task of intercepting a lone fighter.

"Lieutenant, notify the leader that I want them to hail that ship before they engage. We don't want another fiasco like we had today."

"Yes, sir."

During the short battle at Mon Calamari, a group of important rebel leaders had tried to escape destruction. They would have been an invaluable source of information if they had been interrogated. The rebel rendezvous point might have even been discovered. But Devil Leader had had his squad destroy the shuttle before checking it out. The thought had never even occurred to him. 

"If there is no rejoinder, then cripple the ship and we'll bring it into the bay with our tractor beam."

Lieutenant Daubenspeck nodded, resisted the urge to shout at his commander for using complicated words excessively, and began barking orders into a chrome boom mike protruding from the communications console.

"Have a squad of stormtroopers and a scanning crew ready. Inform the Scanners to don their protected armor. I don't want to leave anything out and I certainly don't want anyone blown-up. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," The other man replied, then continued on with his work.

Out of the rectangular viewport, Captain Snyder watched the fist half of 2-0 fly out into the graveyard of Mon Calamari and began to seize the strange craft. With an annoyed sigh, the Captain dropped back into his command chair.

_What could this be? He wondered. __A rebel ship? No. It couldn't be. The Rebs aren't so doltish as to consign another attack against the Death Star. And with one ship? A fighter, no less—Impossible! Well, we'll descry in a moment._

"Lieutenant, patch me into the squad's tactical frequency," Snyder was quick to say. If he didn't act now, Daubenspeck would take all the credit for the work. That boy didn't have a single creative thought in his head as far as Snyder was concerned. He was always angering people by threatening to steal their ideas. The captain was glad their paring was only for today's watch.

"Right away, Captain."

The pudgy man taped a few keys and looked to his CO saying, "There you are, sir."

Snyder nodded, and then spoke into a microphone. "Devil Leader, this is Captain Snyder. Commence hailing procedures."

"Copy, sir. Preceding now," The monotone voice of the lead TIE fighter pilot said. There was a click as he switched to a broadband channel. "Attention unidentified Headhunter, this is Flight Commander Curry of the 2-0 Imperial TIE fighter squadron. You are trespassing in current Imperial space. Power down and identify yourself."

There was no reply.

"Repeat: Identify yourself and power-down."

Nothing.

"Orders, sir?"

"Sir," Daubenspeck said to Snyder in a low voice, "the stormtroopers and scanning crew are awaiting further orders."

"Good. Good," he replied. "Begin a scan on that fighter. Let's see what's inside there," Snyder leaned closer to speak to Commander Curry. "Commander, what do your sensors show?"

"My scanners show no life forms aboard— or any droids. We did a fly-by and could see no one inside."

Captain Snyder leaned back. "Lieutenant?"

"Negative on life and droids, sir," the man told him. "Shields, laser cannons, engines, and even life support are powered down. It's floating dead."

"Orders, sir?" Flight Commander Curry asked.

"Hmm," Snyder hummed. "Any detectable explosives, Daubenspeck."

"Uh…none, sir."

"Commander?"

"Negative, sir."

"Alright. Lock a tractor beam and let's bring it in. Get the stormtrooper and scanning crews onto the docking platform. Commander, bring your flight on home." 

"Right away, sir."

"As you wish…sir," The squad leader said in annoyance over being asked to do such a trivial fly-by in the first place.

The lieutenant did as told. A moment later, an invisible beam latched onto the dead ship and slowly brought it into Docking Bay 14. The magnetic containment field was lowered to let the ship and TIE fighters in. When the magcon field had risen again, the two crews rose from the deck on their lifting platform.

Now they would see the purpose of this ship.

Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand, his secret assassin, slid into the hidden compartment just under the cockpit seat as her Z-95 Headhunter exited hyperspace. She had rigged all systems aboard her personal fighter to shutdown the moment she entered the graveyard of Mon Calamari. It was now a dead hulk floating in space.

Her master's top engineers specially designed the niche. Its soul purpose was to shield Jade from all scans when the mission called for it. Nothing could be detected while inside the stealth shell. To the Death Star controllers, it would seem a derelict craft. More than likely, the foolish imperials would believe it a stupid ploy by the Rebel Alliance…

Mara Jade had been innocent once, or so she liked to believe. But in truth, she had no memory of her life before Palpatine had taken her to face her destiny. She had no recollection of her parents or her home world. And Mara was never allowed to know.

"It does not concern your mission, my child," her master had told her when she was very young.

"What is my mission, master?" she had asked.

"To become the extension of my will…"

Palpatine had recognized her potential for the Force and trained her to tap into its flow. But she was not a Sith like him—like his apprentice, Darth Vader. Her powers were weak, he had said. Her potential lied not in Force manipulation, but in sheer physical training.

For close to two decades, she was taught to master martial arts and weapons combat. If there was a unique and complex weapon that became necessary to be wield in a pinch, she was required be more skilled in it than anyone before. She had sparred with Darth Vader himself and was a near master in the Jedi Arts. And in the case where there were no weapon to be used (which was a rarity because anything could be used as a weapon), she was just as deadly, could win with both hands behind her back. 

In addition, the finest technicians and highest-level slicers had instructed Mara invariably throughout her life. If there were a computer code that couldn't be cracked, she must know how to bust it wide open. Mara was trusted with imperial codes so top-secret that not even Vader knew them. No system was safe from her. 

Countless hours of covert operations exercises were drilled into her with extreme precision. If there were an impenetrable fortress out there, it would be essential for her to know how to break in at any point—no matter how heavily fortified. Even if there were an official who was too well guarded to be able kill, she would know how to assassinate him without arousing suspicion. No man, woman, or thing was safe in her presence, except that of her master, Palpatine.

Under her master's order Jade had logged thousands of hours of flight and simulator time. There was no ship too fast, too dangerous, to be flown when it came to the Emperor's Hand. The entire galaxy of Fighter-Aces out there that were blessed with uncanny luck and resourcefulness; she could blow out of the sky with comfort. She was a pilot with no equal.

But as important as all those skills combined, was the ability to know everything that was and would be happening anywhere in the galaxy. Mara had to know exactly what it was, why it happened, and how it was useful to her master's Empire. Mara Jade had hundreds of underworld contacts.

Using the Emperor as a sort of power generator, she was a strong, Force-imbued assassin. The Force abilities she had would normally take her longer than she had lived to learn. But she, in essence, did not use her own abilities, instead she used Palpatine's, a brilliant and timesaving plan.

Her life was so secret; her reason for being so clandestine; her missions so covert, that no one except for the two Sith Lords knew she existed.

One of those Sith was gone now. And the other, the foul traitorous bastard Darth Vader, would soon follow. Mara, and her master, would accept no less. She'd been through far too much to fail now. The path to the second Death Star had been littered with obstacles. Barriers all created by one woman: Imperial Director Ysanne Isard. 

As far as that woman was concerned, Mara was of the greatest of threats to the Empire. Isard's only motive to think that was the fact that she knew nothing of Mara, save for that the Emperor favored her in his court. While as loyal to Palpatine as Mara was, Isard was a control freak; frightened by anyone whom she did not have extensive and or damning information on. That made Mara Jade an enemy of the Empire in Isard's cherry and azure eyes…

Mara had been given an imperative mission to assassinate a powerful Jeodu named Dequc, the leader of the new Black Nebula crime ring. She had just failed in her attempt to kill Luke Skywalker on Jabba the Hutt's sail barge and was feeling defeated when she received the order. 

Black Nebula had risen from the ashes of the old Black Sun syndicate that had been led by the Falleen, Prince Xzior. Black Sun had been almost as powerful and influential as the Empire until Xzior tried to become the Emperor's new lieutenant by making Darth Vader look foolish in the eyes of his master. Vader discovered the plot and, to say the least, showed the "prince" his displeasure. Thus, without its leader Black Sun crumbled, giving rise to its successor. But Palpatine had not wanted another Black Sun and ordered Mara to quash the group before they gained any real power.

With little trouble, Mara Jade found Dequc and relieved the pointy-headed creature of his head, all the while the Jeodu had been spouting some gibberish his native language. As proof of her success, Mara took with her the amulet Dequc wore around his neck, the necklace once worn by Prince Xzior, to present to her master.

The Emperor was pleased at Mara's accomplishment and allowed her time to rest on Imperial Center even without the proof. But something had been bothering Mara—she hadn't known what. All was revealed when her droid, Kaythree, had commented that the jewels in the medallion were kubaz xirkonia—fake diamonds! It would take a lot of alcohol to convince Mara that the leader of the wealthiest crime organization in the galaxy would wear fake diamonds. The necklace was counterfeit as was the Dequc Mara had killed. The alien had been trying to tell her she had the wrong man all along! Indeed, simulations showed that even bumbling guards should have been able to keep their leader alive. Mara had been duped. 

Later, Mara had tried to access Isard's confidential files on Black Sun, to confirm her failure the legal way. But being a super-secret assassin, Mara had now security clearance to the files. But if something like that were able to stop her, she wouldn't be the Emperor's Hand. 

That night, Mara broke into Isard's office and accessed the files that confirmed her suspicions. There, in the office, inside a "secured" vault was Xzior's amulet. She had left with the evidence she needed, but as it became apparent, Mara had not covered her tracks well enough…

Her master's final call had hit her like a ton of duracrete blocks. She was knocked unconscious by the force of his telepathic plea. Through his eyes, she saw Vader and his son, lightsabers drawn, stalking toward her defenseless Emperor. And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over; his vociferation ringing in her ears commanding, "You will kill Luke Skywalker!" 

When she had awoke, only half conscious, there were voices coming closer. Mara hadn't energy to even stand, so when she heard Ysanne Isard's voice announce that she had finally found the supposed Emperor's Hand, Mara could do nothing to defend herself. She had been truly defeated.

The next Mara knew she was lying on a rather uncomfortable cot inside a small duracrete cell. Her extensive knowledge of Imperial Center and Isard herself told her she was in the Emperor's dungeon inside the Imperial Palace. It was obvious what was happening; Isard may have been able to discover what Mara was, but it was very likely that she didn't know exactly what Mara used to do for the Emperor. And the pathetic director had assumed that any information she couldn't pilfer from Palpatine's personal data stores; she could interrogate out of Mara.

There was a lot of information that Mara had that Ysanne Isard did not. First, when the Emperor had these cells designed, he had instructed his loyal Hand to test it for flaws. But that wasn't much; it only meant that the cells were impossible to breakout of. Second, if Mara could get to a data console that was connected to the Palace network, she would have control of this entire complex within a minute. Third, Mara knew how to walk through the entire palace blindfolded, which included Palpatine's secret tunnels that only he, Vader, and Jade knew existed. Mara could be out and off this planet in less than an hour.

Her first thought was to take her time and get a feel for the people that were staffing the prison; learn their mannerisms and thoughts. That would be the safest way to free herself, the way she had been taught. But it was not a good choice in this instance. Mara, for one, was ever so slowly loosing her connection to the Force—she could feel that much. While she still retained the knowledge to use her powers, they were becoming weaker by the hour. Also, the longer she waited the more time she gave Isard to discover just how dangerous Mara actually was. The other problem, was the pounding headache she had, like a drum beating in her head. When she focused her mind, the pounding changed into a voice repeating her master's last command; "You will kill Luke Skywalker!"

What ever Mara was going to do, she would have had to do it now. 

There were pinhole holocams imbedded in the walls, Mara knew to be a fact. That meant the easiest way out would be to put on a little performance. She got up off her cot and paced around, pretending to examine the walls and door for any way to escape. This made the guards watching her think that she was getting nervous and scared. Mara had kept up the routine for a few minutes before finally sitting back down and hanging her head low in defeat. An officer would no doubt be arriving soon to seize this advantage.

The carrier officer had shown-up less than thirty-seconds later, trying miserably to suppress a self-satisfying grin. They had chatted for a few minutes about Mara's identity and imperial secrets she knew, until finally Mara had enticed him with the idea that she knew secret codes that Isard could use. Standard protocol, Mara knew, was for him to bring her a datapad—not take her to a terminal connected to the Imperial network. But with a little Forcing, the man was happy to break that rule. She had been led to a data terminal like he said and Mara thanked him by snapping his neck, thereby relieving Isard of one-more petty thug.

Within seconds, Mara was in the mainframe working her magic. She knew she had to hurry because her acts did not go unnoticed by the holocams. She took those off-line first, then initiated a complete security lock down of the entire Imperial Palace. Next, she had accessed a few seekerbots to each go on a separate mission of tripping sensors in sequence in various parts of the palace, suggesting for Isard and her cronies multiple escape paths that Mara could have taken. But none of them were the genuine article. Instead, Mara had chosen to make use of the secret tunnels that ran around the compound. There, no one would be able to find her. She could stop for a moment and think. 

Killing Isard would be the smart thing to do—again, a tactic that had been drilled into her. After all, Director Isard had made herself an enemy. And enemies must be promptly eliminated. But on the other hand, Isard was only trying to rid the Empire of someone she believed to be a threat to stability. She was a skilled Imperial politician. And, most importantly, Isard disliked Darth Vader and wouldn't mind seeing him be eliminated from the picture. If Mara was going to destroy the Sith Lord and his son, what was left of the Empire would need her leadership.

It was decided then, Mara would let Isard live with her error—this time, but if she ever got in Jade's way again, there would be trouble for sure. 

That had not been the time to think of the distant future. Mara had had to keep her mind on the present task at hand. She had needed to find a transport and get off this planet quick.

Using the tunnels, Mara had found her way to Isard's palace office. The Force had seemed to with her because there she had found the weapons that were confiscated upon her capture. They had just been lying around out in the open, unguarded and ripe for the taking. Next to Mara's equipment had been an expensive data pad that belonged to Isard. That fact had not piqued Mara's interest, but what had is that it was still hardwired to the Network. With it, she had found the various countermeasures that had been put in place to foil her escape plans. Also, with Isard's personal clearance codes, Mara had been able to order a dozen Imperial Intelligence shuttles to prepare for flight and for launch orders. Mara could steal any of those and be on her way. But that wouldn't serve her purposes very well. She had needed to access a craft that could get her into the Death Star undetected. She had needed her Headhunter. That meant she needed her personal cruiser to make the long trip out there. The ship was big and required a crew of at least four to fly. Her faithful droid Kaythree would still be onboard and loyal to her, but the crew would not be.

She had to risk it, for her master's sake. She had to avenge his death the best way possible. To do that she needed her resources, no matter how hard it might be to get them back.

Using the datapad, she found that her ship was under lock and key at Intel headquarters not far from here—no doubt to discover any secrets on board.

The trip to the secured hanger had gone without incident. Isard and her troops had been too busy trying to discover which shuttle Mara was going to take, to think that Mara might go for her own craft a kilometer south. Isard's reputation for cunning was vastly overrated. 

The light-cruiser had been guarded by a several platoons of stormtroopers and was swarming with technicians and slicers; too many people for a straight, head-on assault, especially with her Force-powers dampening. But Mara had had an advantage in that she knew the ship better than any of them did. She also carried with her a tight-beam comm unit that was a direct link to Kaythree. Using it, the droid informed his master that he had been fitted with a restraining bolt and was being used to locate all the hidden compartments and data files, but that his built-in security countermeasures had secretly overridden it. He had been feigning cooperation since, showing the agents trivial things. 

It could not have been better if Mara had planned it. She informed him of her situation and that she would be using the intruder defense system. That had told him everything he needed to know.

The cruiser had no weapons. It was built for speed, but also contained superior shielding that would help Mara in her plan to recapture it. All she had had to do was sneak in past the troopers on the outside and access the bridge. From there, she had sealed up the craft, activated the shields to ward-off the blaster fire from the stormtroopers, and then began to put into use the intruder defense system—a particularly nasty function installed the year before. Mara had never needed to use it before that situation.

Like clockwork, Kaythree had dashed into the cockpit, reporting that agents had been locked in the cargo-bay on the sub-deck and that they could easily radio for help. Mara had only nodded in approval than told him to begin the ship's star-up sequence. Though he had complained that it took two people to do that, the chrome droid did as told. Mara then sealed the doorway to the bridge, fortifying the position with a blast door. She helped the droid engage all other systems and in moments, they and fifty or so imperials swooped out of the hanger and up towards the stars. The external stormtroopers had been vaporized by the blast of the thrusters while they still had been firing at the well-protected ship in futility.

The cruiser's IFF codes still had shown it to be one of the Emperor's personal craft and thus the space traffic controllers made no attempt to stop it. Once free of the oncoming influx of spacecraft and imperial picket-ships, the two set-course for the Death Star. Kaythree had heard from the Intel agents that the battle station had moved on to the Calamari system a day ago. With the departure times and net speeds of the two craft, Kaythree estimated that they would arrive a day after the Death Star. 

After five minutes of travel and incessant pounding on the door, Mara and Kaythree had brought the ship back from hyperspace into realspace. Mara punched in a code on the internal systems computer, which had opened a hidden compartment beside her. Inside was a broad lever that she grabbed and then pulled down. Tiers slid over every unprotected niche and compartment in the ship, especially Mara's Headhunter in the small docking-bay of the sub-deck. In every cabin, save the air-locked bridge, huge hull panels opened up and exposed the cruiser to the harshness of space. At once, all the invaders, on all four decks, were sucked out into the black abyss of the stars.

Mara and Kaythree had been at last safe and free from the clutches of Isard. They had resumed their flight to Calamari and Mara prepared to assault the Death Star. She had chosen on the way everything she would take with her, which wasn't going to be much. When they arrived, Mara would drop the ship just out of the Calamari system and go in alone on her Headhunter. 

She had had it all planned out and now everything was proceeding as she had foreseen. The bumbling idiots asleep at their stations would pull her right into their closely guarded battle station. What lie ahead, Mara knew was going to be the most difficult mission of her young life. Never had she thought she would be going against Darth Vader in the name of their lord and master, Palpatine. And Skywalker was powerful, but did not have the training that his father did, that Mara did. It would be a trial like no other—one that would test her skills and determination to their maximum. Mara felt like her whole life was building up to this point. 

The dead Headhunter slowly drifted into the maw of docking-bay 1


	4. PART ONE: MALICE CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR

The white of stormtrooper armor filled the 2-demensional flat-screen before Mara Jade's face. All twelve of the cloned troopers had formed a protective arch around her Headhunter. Mara could sense that they were all unsure as to what would happen next.

It was time to spring her trap—now or never. Mara reached out to what she had left of the Force and freed her senses to it. With it, her nervousness subsided, along with her anger and hatred. The Force was a strange topic when it came to Mara Jade. Though she had served the most powerful living force of darkness, Mara wasn't on the dark side of the Force. But neither was she on the light. For Mara, it was more of a "gray" side of the Force. Indeed she had murdered many in her time, she was a professional and therefore never felt any emotion for them or anyone for that matter—except the profound honor she used to feel when fulfilling her master's commands. Mara was not evil, nor was she good. She had always been something in between, something special. But now, since the murder of her master—her reason for living—that "gray" was steadily growing darker in shade. A voice that had no sound and spoke no words told her that the darkness was the reason she still had a few Force-skills left. It said that if she embraced the darkness fully, all her troubles would disappear. Mara wasn't sure what to make of it.

"If the iniquity you abandon, than have true power, you will!" A gruff, dyslectic sounding voice reverberated.

What was that?, Mara asked herself. 

She hadn't actually heard that voice. It had clearly sounded in her head. But this new voice actually spoke to her, not merely stated its advice by projecting feelings. What could it be? Had her head suddenly turned into the battleground for the war between light and darkness? 

Mara rubbed her eyes and shook the puzzlement from her head. This was not the time for philosophical thoughts. She had a mission to complete and time was running out.

The scanning crew appeared at the back of the bay; four men dressed in protective armor and face shields designed to safeguard the wearer from an explosion. It was clear to Mara that the imperials did believe that there was a bomb in her ship. And if the bomb squad got any closer, they would tell the stormtroopers to back. That would put them far from the Headhunter—too far to be accurately be affected by a surprise like Mara intended. She couldn't let that happen…

Mara Jade hit a button at her fingertips. The lid to her hidden compartment sprang-up along with the canopy of her fighter. What emerged was a blur of motion that shot from the Headhunter, somersaulted in the air, and landed in the middle of the platoon of troopers. The black cloaked figure let loose the violet-pink blade of her lightsaber. The weapon sliced the muzzle off one trooper's blaster carbine in a flash. Blaster fire whizzed over Mara's head as she turned the blade back brilliantly and decapitated the man beside him.

Mara shoulder-thrust the weaponless man to the ground, deflected three shots away from her, and continued on as she deactivated her lightsaber. Faster than the eye could see, the saber was gone. Mara turned, cross-drew two automatic blaster-pistols, and brought them to bear on the troops to her right and left. Three men went down on both sides of her.

Scarlet beams of energy moved this way and that as Mara whirled into a crouch, crossing her arms and opening fire on the remainder of the men standing. Her hood had flown back, exposing her braided mane of fiery red hair and flawlessly beautiful face. She let out a relieved breath, flicked her blaster to semi-automatic with her thumbs, spun around as she stood, and aimed her guns in the skull-like face of the stormtrooper that had been knocked down. She lingered for a split-second so the dimwitted trooper could realize that he should have stayed down, then blew his head off.

Ten meters away, the cowardly scanning crew stood frozen in shock and fear. Mara faced them and knew out of necessity that they could not be allowed to live. They suddenly came to their senses and tried to bolt back the way they came, but Mara Forced the door to close then blasted the console. A shot at each of them into the less protected joint at the neck of their armor erased them from the equation.

Mara re-holstered her pistols, then shrugged of the black cloak. The Emperor's Hand wore a form-fitting black body suit underneath. Had it not been black, it would be next to impossible to discern where the suit began and her flesh ended. It was Mara's style of choice when the mission called for it. The tight, lightweight, but durable elastic material, perfectly complimented her compact body of a dancer. She also enjoyed the fact that it helped to distract any male enemies of a low cast of mind. Clinging just as tight was the charcoal-colored leather belt that squeezed her waist and the accompanying holsters. It all served to allow Mara smooth, fluid movements that were completely unhindered. In fact, only her black-handled lightsaber lie loosely at her side for easy access. Mara was the perfect assassin.

She reached out to the Force, searching the massive installation for the presence of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Immediately, she felt an immensely powerful Force-presence on the other half of the station. It was focused, powerful, the aura of one directly in tune with the flow of the Force. That had to be Vader. The other presence she felt was much closer. Wild, untapped, potential—strong like Vader's. That one perplexed Mara. Clearly it had to be Skywalker, the Emperor's executioner, but before, when she had first got wind of him in Jabba the Hutt's palace, he hadn't felt that raw. What could it be besides Skywalker? 

Movement up above caught Mara's eye, shattering her thought process. That second, a blaring alarm rang through the bay and she had no doubt it played in many other places as well. The frightened faces of two officers stared out from the docking-control booth, but ran-off as soon as they locked eyes with her. Mara followed with lightning reflexes, drawing her lightsaber and giving life to it once more. She leaped up, aided by the Force, and flipped, latching on to a durasteel partition extending from the booth's wide viewport. The skinner of the two men was darting for the open doorway to the halls outside when Mara caused the door to slide shut in his face. He bounced off the hatch with blood running from his now broken nose while the pudgy officer hopped back with a squeal that Mara was unable to hear from the booth. He looked on in horror as their invader drove her blade into the transperisteel, carving a circular hole. The four-centimeter thick circle fell out as Mara swung her self in, landing next to the men. 

Sweat rolled down the face of the over-weight-man, filling the heavily recycled air with the wretched stink of fear. Mara knew that smell very well, as did she recognize the helpless whimpering of a wounded animal coming from the second imperial.

The standing officer pulled up his chubby arms and cried, "P-P-Please don't kill me." Tears were rolling down his face as he moaned pathetically, "It was all his fault, all his idea!"

This man was a disgrace to the memory of the Emperor in every. His mere being sickened Mara. 

She clicked off her lightsaber and reattached it to her belt. At first, the man seemed relieved by the move, but then suddenly tensed up when Mara sneered. She grabbed her pistol that lie on her left thigh, brought it up, and shot the man between the eyes. He went down with a loud thump.

Mara looked to the door suspiciously, knowing that a dozen stormtroopers would be upon her in moments, then blasted the panel beside it. It should buy her the time she needed.

Mara bent down and grabbed the other man by the collar. "Don't extinguish me!" he snapped.

"Get up," she ordered him, giving a little tug.

The captain did as told, but was tossed onto the computer consoles nearby. Mara was on him quick, the muzzle of her blaster stuck in his forehead. The brave officer of the imperial navy wet his pants in fright. 

"Where is Skywalker?" she demanded to know, forgoing the attempt to influence his mind. 

"Sk-Skywalker?"

Mara pressed the gun to him harder to intimidate him further. "Where is he?"

The officer stuttered as he searched his mind to the best of his ability. "His-His accommodations are on the divergent side of the complex. He-He must be there."

Mara searched the Force and still found the presence much closer than that. "You lie, imperial scum! Skywalker a lot closer than that. Tell me where he is!"

They both turned their heads, as the shouts became audible on the other side of the door, monotonous voices of stormtroopers preparing to blow down a door. They would be in her in a moment.

"You're running out of time, captain!" Mara stared him dead in the eye.

"I don't know where he is, I—"

Mara slowly prepared to fire, so that the man would see what was about to happen.

"Wait! Wait," his eyes went wide as if he suddenly remembered something important. Mara hesitated for a moment. "He-He's been spending a lot of terms at the detention blocks—AA-20, I believe! Not far from here!" 

Mara grinned. Yes, that would explain why he felt so close—the detention blocks! And here she had thought she wouldn't get any real information out of the imp. This was good. Skywalker was isolated from his father, which meant she might stand a chance of killing him! Things were looking up after so many days of hardships.

Jade pulled the gun away from the man and pistol-whipped him across the head. The alarm had sounded and her secret was out, no need to kill the man to keep him quiet.

Mara dashed to the side of the entryway and upholstered her second gun. She held them up, parallel to her face and switched them back to automatic fire. Her breath was labored from both physical exertion and nervousness. Mara called upon a Force calming technique she learned early on. It was an elementary manipulation of the mystic energy force that any child could easily master, but now Mara felt nothing. She could hardly feel the Force now, let alone use it to her advantage. Her breathing remained at a stressed pace even as the door shot up into the frame.

Mara smacked the first stormtrooper that entered with the butt of her pistol, spinning him around. Without halting, the Emperor's Hand brought her arms up under the armpits of the trooper and opened fire on rest of the squad outside. A few returned the assault before they were mowed down, but struck only her human shield. 

Jade threw down her dead shield and ran for the opening of a corridor in front of her. Red bolts of energy zipped by as stormtroopers on both sides tried to bring her down in the open. Mara reached her cover just as a Death Star trooper emerged from a room she hadn't been able to see before. He apparently didn't see her until she was right in his face and attempted to back away to fire his imperial-issued blaster pistol. Mara wasted no time and shot the man in the chest at point-blank range with her right gun while placing the left under her arm. She grabbed the man's weapon, to conserve her limited ammo, as he fell and turned to face the coming onslaught. 

Mara pegged one stormtrooper around the corner in the faceplate and dropped the two flanking him. The others stopped dead and fired, clipping the edges of the bend as Jade went for cover and holstered her personal weapons. She knew that she couldn't hold the troops off for long, but if she continued down the hall they'd get a nice shot at her back. Stormtroopers were cold enough to do that to a person (when they actually hit somebody). All imperial soldiers were that way and Mara regretted that she fell under that category as well. She had been thinking a lot about that lately. 

Mara wasn't so naïve as to think that what she did—her life's work—was in anyway justified or for that matter morally acceptable. She killed people for a living. She killed the enemies of the Emperor because he willed it. Sure, not everything she had ever done for her master involved extinguishing someone's life, but for the most part it did. But why the dictator of the of the galaxy had needed someone to fulfill his will discreetly when he could just as easily had it done straightforwardly without infliction was never Mara's place to ask. But now she did ask her self that question and it pained her that she would never know the answer. Just what was her true purpose in life? Why was she here—A blaster bolt that singed the bulkhead beside her snapped Mara back into focus. Rampaging at her from the opposite side of the adjacent corridor was a squad of stormtroopers, their feet clacking on the durasteel flooring. Mara added to the din the repeat of her imp-issue pistol. One, two, three went down before they realized that they had even less cover than Mara did. They scrambled for cover that didn't exist in the halls and where picked off more easily. 

Mara felt a slight twitch in her waning connection to the Force, nothing more. That was all her warning that the men she had turned her back on where closing in. She turned just as a crimson bolt passed so close to her leg that she would swear that it had grazed her. Jade popped one in the chest and unleashed all her Force power on the trooper no a meter away. All that achieved was the man stumbling back a foot when Mara had expected him to go flying into his comrades. She blasted him and four others, sending the rest reeling back. Now more came from her aft. She spun and pulled the trigger, but got only a soft click. Jade cursed and dove away to avoid being shredded by energy fire. She hit the ground gracefully right next to the dead Death Star trooper and damned him for not having his pistol fully loaded. 

Like lightning, Mara Jade turned on to her back, auto-pistols out. The barrage of deadly coherent light killed five stormtroopers before they slammed against the ground. She did a backward somersault, coming up on her knees and continued her defense. 

The influx of troops died down just long enough for Mara to hop to her feet and continue on. With the whole station on alert like it was, it wasn't likely that Skywalker would stay put in the detention block. Mara could still perceive a fuzzy haze in the area of brig. Darth Vader, on the opposite end of the station, burned like massive glowrod amid stark lightlessness. She couldn't discern what it was, but Vader seemed twice as powerful as usual and Skywalker's power more savagely unfocused than when she had seen him on Tatioone. But it didn't bother her, though. She merely attributed it to her own dying power in the Force.

Two stormtroopers popped around the corner some five meters and nearly slammed into the adjacent wall and each other when they spotted the intruder right before them. One shouted frantically to others around the bend as he and his comrade leveled their blaster carbines and fired wild bolts that sprayed only the walls. Mara Jade's retort was far more accurate.

The others came around, but only in time to catch the fury of Jade's glowing violet–pink blade. In the tight space they put themselves in, melee weapons like a lightsaber had an extreme advantage over blasters. The stormtroopers were slaughtered with the slightest of movements.

Beyond the open doorway littered with shredded armor and body parts, was a dark grey, non-railed catwalk that cut through four massive spires lined with lights and controls. A dozen like passages flanked the walkway on either side for more than a hundred meters. Mara stopped, regardless of the sound of approaching troops behind her, and plunged the first half of her lightsaber's blade into the deck. She pulled it to the left, leaving behind a trail of white-orange metal that indicated the end of the catwalk had been severed from the hallway outside. 

The clacking of boots got louder, now from forward as well as aft vectors, prompted Mara to proceed quickly across the walkway. The troopers at her front showed up first, knowing all ready she was there. 

The first deflected shot went wide, off into the ceiling, but the second and third fired from the two stormtroopers caught them dead center in their chests. Another stepped over his fallen comrades and continued the fight. Mara was at his face by then and easily skewered the armored man with her lightsaber. She disengaged the trooper and instinctively threw a hand up to the two around the corner, but if any tendrils of the Force had struck them, they weren't showing it.

Mara ducked back around the doorframe, kneeling on the catwalk once more. Blaster bolts peppered the bulkheads fore and aft as the two teams converged on her position. First thing first, she had to finish sabotaging the walkway so no more could follow her. Then, she could finish the stormtroopers in her way.

Without anymore procrastination, Mara sliced a gash in the durasteel walkway behind her, nearly severing it from the battle station entirely. But not yet, Mara told herself. That would be a little surprise for her stalkers.

She got up again, careful not to put any weight on the unstable plank of metal, and faced the oncoming assault. It had doubled to four troops now, but that didn't faze her. Mara sprinted towards them, batting away energy darts as she covered the distance in a second. Her first swipe took one man's gun-hand away, while her second ripped his and his partner's torso clean away from their bodies. She sent the third down with a deflected shot, then decapitated the final soldier. Mara reattached her lightsaber and sped on even before the last two bodies hit the floor.

Out on the walkway, the weight of a mob of stormtroopers proved too much for the wounded catwalk and the remaining connection snapped with an echoing death-wail, eclipsed only by the screams of the plummeting troops. 

Mara Jade rounded a corner, devoid of any beings, and in an instant later, was in her first destination. A massive room filled with rows of turbolifts that led to all sections of the station. One would be taking her to the detention block.

"There she is! Get her!" Shouted an officer in imperial olive-gray. He waved his pistol to beckon stormtroopers down a corridor.

But to Mara's horror, platoons of soldiers dispersed from all openings. More than she could count. More than she could possibly control. She gasped, which she could not remember having done in years. It would be impossible to make it to the lifts at the other end of the room. In fright, she went for cover.

"Concentrate child. The Force…let it flow through you. Calm…you must be…if you wish to survive…"

There was that voice again. It was a comforting, wise voice, but not one that she had heard in all her years of service to the Emperor. Who could she be remembering? What was her subconscious trying to tell her? For surely that was all it was.

Mara focused inward, slightly at first, then more deeply as it came more comforting. Suddenly, it was back, though only a brief flicker. She could once again sense life around her. She could briefly glimpse the Force in entirety as she once could. But it was somehow different this time. The lingering chill she always felt was but gone completely. This new sense, which she could only taste, seemed more inviting, comforting to her. It was untainted, unspoiled, a luminous beam of warmth on her soul.

A chunk of durasteel beside her flashed then went black with smoke. Then the wall in front of her was rained down on. Mara drew her pistols and knew it was now or never. She had to make a run for the lift tubes, elevated just above her position. 

"Concentrate on the Force, child. Their assault…nothing but a hindrance to your success. Believe in the Force…save you it will!"

No time to question the source of the voice now. It was life or death time. Mara was the Emperor's Hand, and be it ten soldiers or a thousand, nothing would stop her vengeance.

Mara Jade shot out of hiding and laid down suppression fire that knocked at least seven troopers in close proximity to each other down. She ran for the stairs leading to the lift tubes, mowing down stormtroopers and officers to her left and right. The entire room was ablaze with blaster fire, with at least a dozen deaths to friendly fire as all tried to quell Mara's invasion. An overwhelming sense of commitment to her goal drove Mara on to her destination without fear of being lanced by a scarlet bolt. She fired and fired and fired, vowing never to give up, never surrender no matter how tired or hurt she may be. The Emperor would be avenged!

Suddenly, all the shooting stopped and she didn't know why. Even her own weapons were silenced. She shook her head to relieve the perplexity and abruptly realized she was safely inside the turbolift. She had been awash in a daze she had never felt before in her life. Mara had acted without conscious thought, slipping completely into reflex and will power. The thought left her awed. 

Then, it hit her like a ton of duracrete. The pain, fatigue, and stress of her fight for the turbolift overwhelmed all her senses and there was nothing she could do to make it go away. She felt weak and tired, her knees buckling under the pressure of holding her aching body up. Mara slumped to the ground and into the darkness…

Moff Jerjerrod straightened his olive-gray uniform and matching cap in uneasiness. Straightening the rank squares on his chest, he let out a deep breath and tapped the button that slid the immense double durasteel doors to their flanks. There, inside the ominously darkened room sat Lord Darth Vader and his son, Luke Skywalker. What they had been conversing about was none of Jerjerrod's business and thus he refused to even wonder.

The commander of the Death Star came just far enough into the room to allow it to be once again sealed off from all others. He came to attention without saying a word. No matter how dire the news was that Jerjerrod had come to tell the Dark Lord, he would wait until ordered to explain his intrusion.

"I told you we were not to be bothered, Commander," Lord Vader spoke.

Jerjerrod swallowed hard, fearing he had indeed made the wrong decision to come here. Nonetheless, the Moff remained silent.

"What is so important that you are willing to die to tell me?"

"My Supreme Lord, we have an intruder in the station," The man told him, trying his best to hide his anxiety. "A woman." He raised his black gloved hand, holding in it a small holoprojector. It illuminated to show the still visage of a woman with a blaze of red hair and deep green eyes. "We've sent out whole companies of stormtroopers to stop her, but she's still coming through! She…she's armed with a lightsaber milord!"

Vader stood up to his full height and looked straight at the Moff. "That will be all, Jerjerrod."

The man nodded, bowed, and then left the room with all haste. Luke looked on in puzzlement. "What is it?"

"Mara Jade is here," Vader told his son. "I knew it would only be a matter of time before she found her way here."

"Mara Jade?"

"The Emperor's assassin. She means to avenge her fallen Master."

Luke's eyelids went half-closed as he probed with the Force. A moment later, he looked to his father saying in a surprised tone, "The Force is with her."

"No doubt she knows for certain that you struck the death blow…Very well, we shall give her the confrontation she desires."

Luke nodded, but his uncertainty flowed off him like an odorous stench.

"There is no cause for alarm, my son. Jade is weak. You will find no trouble in dispatching her."

Luke's expression betrayed his surprise at being solely picked to confront her. But Vader sensed he had faith in himself and his newly acquired abilities. "As you wish."

"Nonetheless," Vader warned with a raised finger. "As of now, her skills with a lightsaber exceed yours, though her experience with the Force does not. You will not find ease in destroying her."

"Yes, father," Luke said with more confidence and zeal now. 

"Good. Now we will go to set our trap."

Mara caught herself almost instantly and jumped to her feet. She ran her hands over still covered eyes and blew out a deep sigh. That was the moment she realized the lift wasn't moving. With a start, she popped her eyelids open and was completely taken aback by what she now saw. A room, stark, blinding white, surrounded her. It seemed endless on every side, an infinite abyss of light.

What…Where am I, Mara asked herself frantically.

"Everywhere and nowhere we are, my child," A familiar voice sounded.

It was the voice in Mara's head, the one that had warned her and guided her through the Death Star. But this time it was an external voice. Coming from, Mara turned to look, three meters away. With lightning reflexes, Mara drew her twin blaster pistols…or she would have had they been there. They, along with her lightsaber were gone.

The less than one meter tall, greenish alien before her shook his pointy eared head. "A physical plane, you do not stand in now. Your weapons lay with your body…In your mind, we are."

"Who are you?" Mara demanded of the diminutive creature.

The alien dismissed the question with a wave of his small, cane grasping hand. "My identity will help you not, child. Grievous subjects do we have to speak about."

"Am I dead?" Mara asked.

"No. But not far from it."

Mara sneered. "Then listen you freaky little dyslectic dwarf! I don't have time to—"

"Much anger you have inside," The alien interrupted as he lowered his head. "Understandable."

Mara crossed her arms and retorted. "And what do you know of anger, Jedi ghost?" The assassin noticed the creature became slightly surprised by the comment. "Yes, I know about that aspect of the Force. Don't act so shocked."

The little green alien gave an unemotional grin, exposing his minute, sharp teeth. "Yes…Jedi I was. But all Jedi know anger at some point in life. Immune to it…none are."

Mara starred him straight in the eye. "You wouldn't understand. I have…—I don't have time for this! Leave me be, Jedi!"

"Much anger in you, yes…But do you truly understand why you feel so? Hmmm?" The Jedi of the past asked her. When there was no reply, save hostile thoughts, he continued. "Yes. Thought not, did I."

"You want to know why I'm angry? I'll tell you," Mara snapped. "Vader and his son destroyed my life! That's why! Before they took over, I had a purpose. I had a reason for living. And now I have nothing but revenge to live for."

"And if destroy them you do, what will you have accomplished? In their blood, your emperor will not be reborn."

"They killed my master!" Mara exclaimed.

"Freed you, they have! Freed you from the Emperor's evil. From servitude."

Mara was infuriated. "What? Don't tell me you support them!"

"I do not!" The Jedi replied strongly. "I merely tell you that you have a chance to change. Throw off your bonds to evil! Know in your heart, that you have no love for the Empire or its Emperor. Evil you are not. Twisted was the Emperor's spirit, but not yours." He struck the ground with his wizened cane for emphasis. 

"You," Mara said with an uneasy chuckle. "You're trying to recruit me to your cause. You're trying to convert me."

"If to destroy Luke and Vader, you wish, I will not try to stop you," He told her. "But know this: You are no match for Vader and his son. But with help, you may someday."

"Help? What help?"

"When the time comes, you will know… "

Mara snapped awake, looking directly at the floor of the still descending lift car. A quick check showed that her weapons were on her person once again and the mysterious Jedi was gone. Had it all been a dream? Was Mara going mad? And if not, what help could she possibly receive that could destroy Skywalker or Vader? It would take someone more powerful than the Emperor himself to accomplish the task. Mara was more than sure she couldn't kill Vader—his son maybe—but not Lord Vader. Though she liked to think otherwise, she doubted she would survive an encounter with the Dark Lord of the Sith. Her mission was to kill Luke Skywalker and that was all. Escaping afterwards was not her plan. What could possible save her now?

"When the time comes, you will know…"

Mara shook the voice from her head. Right now she didn't need the lunatic ravings of a ghost. Like it or not, she had a job to do for her Emperor. After all, the Emperor may be gone, but his Hand still thrived. That Hand would die to serve his will. Why? Because her duty was to fulfill Palpatine's wishes and it always had been. If the Emperor were still around, it always would be. But alas, he was gone and Mara soon with him.

A thought entered Mara's head. One that was treasonous and made her no better than the men she sought to kill. Why did she follow Palpatine's orders? Why were his decisions absolute? Simply because he had conquered a weak government and declared himself master of all? That couldn't be right. There had to be a reason—A reason beyond the instinct of self-preservation in a cutthroat institution and beyond merely following a cause she believed in. Because, though she never admitted it to her master, Mara did not care for politics. It didn't matter to her if the Empire crushed the Rebellion or if the Rebellion triumphed over the Empire. She might have spent all her life listening and learning Imperial jargon, but Mara had a strong will and was not so easily brainwashed…was she? 

If all this was indeed true, why did Mara serve the Emperor? Honestly, she couldn't answer that. Was her whole life a sham? Had she been brainwashed into following a person she felt no love for?

Mara grabbed her head and screamed. That damn Jedi was getting to her head. Corrupting her feelings and thoughts. Making her believe things she really didn't believe…wasn't he?

Before Mara could finish the analysis of her psyche, the lift came to a steady halt and the door slid open with the barest of sounds. Mara drew her two pistols, flicked them to semi-auto, stepped out and blew the heads off two stormtroopers in front of her. With a quick glance, she counted six other troops and two officers in the vestibule of Detention block AA-20. She moved without stopping, blasting apart the various holocams in the room, before she dove to the ground, somersaulted, and then came to an end with her back to the metal control station in the center. The survivors retaliated with their own blaster fire, but Mara was all ready covered before it made its presence known.

Mara dropped the empty charges from her blasters and slapped a fresh pack in. A stormtrooper came around on both sides of the station, blasters ready, but Mara was ready to shot their legs out from under them. They both yelped, but were silenced by a bolt to the helmet.

Jade popped up, burned a hole in the armor of three troopers and gave the officers an early retirement. The remaining three troopers fired back, but Mara was down again and out of danger. She sprang up, unbelievably still catching the men by surprise, and made them regret their mistake for the nanosecond it took for them to die.

Mara scanned the area for anyone she might have missed, and then sighed when she saw she was safe. She holstered her weapons and almost went stiff from what was bothering her. She shouldn't feel safe, she realized. Mara unclipped her lightsaber as she looked around again.

The purpose of her visit to the detention block was to encounter Skywalker. She could feel his presence distinctly, only meters away. But where was he? As far as she could tell, he was in one of the cells down the corridor in front of her—but why? He had to have heard the light fight in the room—the cells weren't soundproof. He couldn't be hiding, could he?

Yes, that was it wasn't it! The fool didn't know whom he was messing with. He must have thought that Mara couldn't sense his presence in the cell. Mara almost chuckled. She would sneak up to the cell and catch him in his own trap. He would know his mistake when he felt the blade of her saber in his chest. Nothing could surprise Mara today.

Mara Jade found herself eating her words in the next few minutes.

As she crept up into the corridor with the silence of the Emperor's most personal assassin, Mara began to feel that something was wrong. But at the same time, killing Skywalker sounded so right.

Mara came to the cell that she could feel the enormous power sense radiating from and flattened her body against the wall beside the door, her lightsaber ready to strike. But something felt very wrong about what she was about to do. She peeked into the small viewport on the door for reassurance and jumped back at the sight of the figure inside. Leia Organa, Princess of destroyed Alderaan.

Organa, Mara thought. What is she doing here? And where's Skywalker? 

Mara could feel a familiar presence. A presence that was almost as strong, but drastically more raw, than Darth Vader's. It had to be Skywalker because she had been this close to Organa before and never felt even a talent for the Force in her. It couldn't be Organa that was giving off the raw potential. That was in possible!

Mara's mind told her that Leia Organa could never be as strong as Skywalker or Vader, but her heart and what little of Force sensitivity that she had left inside her told her otherwise. She knew that it was Organa's presence she had felt since she came on board, whether she liked it or not.

Of course! Skywalker's presence hadn't been that unfocussed when I tried to get him at Tatioone. But I was around Organa then too. She was no different, Force wise, than anyone else in Jabba's palace. What had awakened her abilities?

That meant that Skywalker and Vader were together and had been together the whole time. It would be impossible to kill the son as long as his father was around. It would take someone as strong as…

Mara had a crazy thought. No, that's just wishful thinking. What that crazy old Jedi had said couldn't be true. Organa would never go along with it, would she?

"When the time comes, you will know…"

Could Mara actually rescue Organa and then train her to kill Skywalker and Vader? Could Mara give-up on possibly losing toady in order to win in the future? Organa had no love for the Empire, she knew that much. 

No, she decided. Mara lacked the knowledge to train an apprentice, especially one so powerful. But the alternative was to face Skywalker and Vader alone and surely die in the process. If only she could train Organa, then everything might work out. But she literally couldn't. Mara didn't even know all that much about the Force herself.

"Help you, I can…A Jedi could you become. And a Jedi Leia will then be…"

_No way old man, Mara thought, not sure if the Jedi could hear her reply. _Even if I train Organa, it won't be as a Jedi. I can assure you of that! I'll train her on my own terms.__

All right, she decided. Mara was going to train Organa as her apprentice. It would be easy to do so. All Mara had to do was claim to be some long lost Jedi here to rescue the last hope, which Organa was, for the galaxy. Organa's fabled sense of duty should convince her to train in the Force and defeat Skywalker and Vader. And if the little old ghost didn't like, he could come down to reality and try to stop her! Mara knew that somewhere the Jedi had to be shaking his sparsely hair head in defeat.

There was a sound from the antechamber of the detention block that Mara knew all to well. If she was going to rescue Organa, she was going to have to do it now. 

Quickly, Mara ignited the blade of her lightsaber and dug it into the door, sweeping down until the electronic lock had been severed. The door popped open and Leia Organa, dressed in prisoner grays, was all ready on her feet. 

Mara rushed in. "I'm Jedi Knight Mara Jade. I'm here to rescue you."

"Jedi Knight?" Leia asked quickly.

"Later. Here, take this." Mara took one of her blasters and tossed it to Leia. "We have to move fast. There'll be stormtroopers on us any second."

"This seems familiar," Leia muttered to herself.

Mara went out, bringing her lightsaber up to defend the two of them from the troopers down the hall. Leia followed, her blaster raised to pick off any threat in her sights.

"There she is! Fire!" A stormtrooper sergeant cried.

His soldiers ran to places near the corridor and let loose with the blaster bolts. Mara deflected the shots that would strike home while making sure not to step into the ones that went wide. She sent one man's blast back to him and Leia scored the sergeant on the other side. One bolt came close to striking Mara's forearm and Leia had to dodge out of the way. The supposed Jedi wasn't going to do anything but get them killed if she didn't think of a way out of this fight.

Leia took the risk of halting her fire and taking her eyes off the stormtroopers in order to scan the walls. She gave a satisfied grin when she saw what she was looking for. She fired off a few more rounds, and then yelled to Mara; "Can you move up a few meters?"

Mara sent a blaster bolt to the side, straining all her energy to hold on to the Force so she could keep up her defenses. She heard Leia's question and though she didn't understand what she was planning, decided that gaining some ground couldn't hurt. She could make short work of these troops with her blasters, but Jedi don't carry blasters. And Mara had no way of knowing if Organa knew that or not. 

Jade knocked back a crimson dart, and then jumped forward, landing a meter from the trash disposal vent at the base of the adjacent wall. Leia took down a stormtrooper and went up to the vent. She held the blaster straight at it and hoped it had the punch of an imperial carbine. Organa fired, snapping the vertical bars in the center, but it took two more to make the hole large enough for the women's bodies.

"Mara, down the hole!" Leia called.

Jade looked behind her back for a second to glimpse Organa's achievement. She smiled.

Genius! I would never have thought of the waste disposal shaft. 

"Go! I'll cover you," Mara told her.

Leia nodded, took a final shot over her rescuer's shoulder and took the familiar plunge into darkness. Mara slapped away more fire as she backed to the hole, grabbed her spare blaster, set it for overload, and threw it to the troopers. The Quick-Blast attachment to all her blasters had once seemed desperate to Mara, but now she was glad the Emperor had demanded their installation. The weapon exploded like a grenade a moment before it hit the decking. The troops near it were scattered and one went flying through the air. Mara took the time to make for the vent, a few wild shots trying in a last ditch effort to stop her.

The ride down the disposal chute was a precarious one, with twists and turns as it sent her to the wherever the garbage compactor in the station lay. Mara spied a light at the end of the tunnel and was just as soon plowing through it and dropping to the murky, cluttered waters below. She hit with a vociferous splash, avoiding nearly being impaled by a shaft of the metal. 

Mara landed waist-high in water, but was quick on her feet before Leia could offer a hand. The princess looked worried and disappointed as she scanned the walls of the chamber. She eyed Mara, saying, "I forgot about the door. We can't blast it. It's magnetically sealed."

Mara moved to the door, clicked on her lightsaber and sliced it as easily as she had Leia's cell. She turned to Leia. "Magnetic seals can deflect blaster bolts, but it's no match for a lightsaber blade."

Leia chucked then took Mara's hand to help her out of the room. Regaining her composure, Leia brought up her blaster and swept the room with its muzzle. Mara was standing in front of her, doing the same with her lightsaber.

Mara closed her eyes and stretched out with all her abilities, gaining a mental picture of the life forms on the deck, or rather the lack thereof. Aside from Organa, her, and the diagnoia they hadn't met in the waste chamber, there was nothing. Not a single imperial, be it soldier, officer, or technician occupied the floor. Thus, she came to the same conclusion that Leia had.

"No stormtroopers," The assassin said cautiously, as if saying so would bring the entire Imperial Army on their heads. "They were crawling all over the station when I got here."

"We must have lost them," Leia reasoned.

"No," Mara said solemnly, the Force alerting her to the danger. She looked at her companion and said, "We have to get out of here…fast! C'mon."

Mara took the left passage of the T-junction before them, Leia not wasting anytime in following. They sprinted down the corridors, not surprisingly bare, without further speech. The Force was guiding Mara around the deck, telling her which corners to turn and what doors to pass through. Finally, she found what she was looking for, a bank of turbolifts. She hit the call button and opened herself to the Force, enabling her to sense if anyone was to be coming down with the lift car.

"Do you know where you're going?" Leia asked her, slightly winded after the long run.

"We're heading back to the docking bays. The ship I came in only seats one person, so we'll have to leave it and steal a shuttle," the other answered without averting her eyes.

The empty car settled and the lift opened up to them. Once inside and away, Leia asked, "Doesn't it contain the coordinates of the Alliance's rendezvous spot?"

"No. But we'll have to destroy it anyway before we leave. It should give us a nice distraction for our theft and escape."

"You don't have the Alliance's coordinates?"

Mara finally looked at her. "I don't work for the Alliance, Princess."

"Then who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I'm a Jedi, like I said," she lied. "I'm not with the Rebels. But that doesn't mean I'm against their cause, either. I came here, out of hiding, to destroy Vader and his son…for the good of the galaxy."

"Luke…" Leia mumbled sadly to the ground.

"When I got here, I felt your presence." Mara stage-chuckled. "I thought you were Luke Skywalker at first. But when I found you, I decided this was going to be a rescue mission instead of search and destroy." That part was true however modified.

Leia nodded, and then looked at the level indicator up above. "What's going on? Why are their no stormtroopers all of a sudden?"

"They're setting a trap for me and most likely you too, now."

Leia needed not to ask whom she meant by They. The answer was frighteningly obvious to her.

"We need to get out of here," she told her rescuer.

Mara gave her a sarcastic grin.

A moment later the lift stopped and the door permitted them to leave. They were in the first corridor Mara had seen in her assault. The bodies of all the troopers had been removed; blaster scorches the only evidence of the fight. Leia looked at the shear number of the pockmarks in amazement.

"Mara, wait." Leia sounded.

The other woman paused and turned to her. "What?"

"Before we leave, we have to find my droid."

Mara shook her head. "Sorry princess, but we simply don't have the time."

"But it's important," Leia told her, her voice getting sorrowful. "…He's the only thing I have left."

"I don't like the idea of losing my fighter, but I have to in order to get us out of here safely."

"Mara. Please. I've," A tear ran down her cheek, "I've lost so many friends…I can't live with one more getting destroyed. Please."

Mara considered it for a moment, but instantly decided against it. It was much too risky an operation. "All right," She lied. "After we set up the diversion."

"Thank you."

Mara nodded and motioned for them to continue on their way. It would be hard getting the princess on a shuttle without her droid, but nothing the Emperor's Hand couldn't handle.

A half-kilometer down the station, they found the main doors to the docking bay Mara had her fighter landed in. Jade slashed the lock and they were ready to set the first part of the escape into motion. 

Behind the doors, her Z-95 Headhunter rested undisturbed. Nonetheless, Mara's danger sense skyrocketed. And as if on command from that sense, the fighter exploded in a blast that disintegrated any shrapnel that might cause harm. Leia collapsed, while Mara stood strong in the face of the blast.

Two figures emerged from the flames like a pair of sinister phoenixes rising from the ashes. With another step they resolved into the only two images Mara would fear. The Dark Lord Vader and his fallen Jedi son, Luke Skywalker moved silently towards their prey, all ready confident in a victory.

"We are honored by your presence, Jade," Vader sounded as the two stopped a meter away from the burning hulk. The bright, flickering light played devious shadows upon the gleaming deck plating. 

Mara gained her wits back and shouted to Leia, "Run!" The assassin's lightsaber flashed to life in front of her, warding off her soon to be attackers with its telltale electric hum.

Leia's eyes were full of fear, as she looked at her father and brother, breathless in horror. She inched back for a moment before getting to her feet and bolting out the way she had come. In an instant, she was through the entryway with the door slamming shut just behind her. Sealed off from the danger in the docking bay, Leia frantically tried to decide what to do next. Oddly, Leia still felt threatened…

A blue flash was all Leia saw before she was sent to the floor. The imperial officer lowered his smoking weapon and motioned for the squad of stormtroopers to take her away.

Mara sneered at the two dark siders as she wove her blade threateningly. The attack had come as a complete surprise to her, but she dare not show it. She had to act tough in front of the two men and project all her anger outward at them. She could feel the dark side strengthening its grip on her soul and right now she didn't care. Anything that would give her the power to even survive this foolhardy encounter she had put herself in. It would seem that all her work to rescue Leia had gone down the proverbial sarlacc gullet. Where was that stout Jedi Master to guide her now? 

"You rescued my daughter, assassin…Perhaps I have misjudged your intentions," Vader told her.

His daughter!

Leia Organa was Vader's daughter? How could that be so? Mara had read Organa's imperial file not too long ago—she had practically memorized it. The report had clearly stated that her father was Bail Organa, the Viceroy of Alderaan. But wait…the file had stated that Leia was Organa's adopted daughter—a fact only a dozen people knew. Could it be possible? Of course! It accounted for her sensitivity to the Force. But knowing the validity of a fact doesn't make it any easier to embrace. 

"You have all ways underestimated my worth to the Empire, Vader."

"Perhaps…But that no longer matters," He wove his hand. "You have failed, Jade. And your attempt to rescue Leia has signed her death warrant. You will not survive and neither will she."

"That may be, Sith Lord, but I won't be shedding this mortal coil before I have your son's head."

Luke came forward, challenging her to make good on her promise. Vader interjected. "Stop," He told his son. To Mara he said, "If you are not careful, assassin, you might receive what you're asking for."

"Unless your boy is too frightened to face a competent fighter that is unafraid to vanquish him," Mara retorted.

There was a tense silence there that Mara doubted even her lightsaber could cleave through. But she knew that the Sith was trying to psyche her out. The Emperor's Hand was not as susceptible to mind games as Vader liked to believe.

"…So be it."

Luke's lightsaber was in his ebony-gloved hand in a flash, the yellow-green blade igniting with a metallic shriek. He swung the weapon up into an aggressive stance that lacked the polish of an expert duelist. The stance was now less effective as far as Mara was concerned.

Mara's blade no sooner came up into position than the young warrior sprang forward and delivered an overhead chop that was easily countered. The blades locked into their deadly dance of fate, Skywalker the less experienced of the two, but what he lacked in skill he made up for in talent. But this was but one of many duels Mara had engaged in, though her first to a life or death struggle. It had been drilled into her, but apparently not explained to Skywalker, that lightsaber dueling was not about trying to cleave your opponent the first chance you get—that could lead to you putting yourself in a dangerous situation. The essence of the art was to tire your opponent down and take him when he makes a mistake, a lapse in his or her guard. Mara Jade was counting on her particular opponent not realizing his faulty strategy.

The blades met high then low, with Mara striking at his neck at the end. He deflected the move with the tip of his weapon as Mara had planned, then swung a reverse diagonal attack at her opposite collar bone—attempting to sever her from shoulder to waist. But Mara moved away, causing Skywalker to stumbling when his energy met no obstruction. She slammed the pommel of her lightsaber into his back, sending him to the ground with a sharp groan.

Mara continued her movement onto a twist that brought her facing Darth Vader and ready to defend. But to her delight, the Sith had moved to the end of the bay and showed no sigh of interfering. That meant this was going to be between her and Skywalker—as long as Skywalker didn't lose. Mara threw him a mocking grin, practically daring him to join the fight, then went back to Skywalker. With any luck, she could kill Skywalker and bolt before the Sith could get his gloves on her. She might just survive the day after all.

Luke was up now, angry at being toyed with by this mysterious assassin owing allegiance to a dead Emperor. He grumbled at her, and then readied himself to engage Jade once more.

"You're moves are sloppy, Skywalker," She goaded him. "That lightsaber's not a toy."

The man swung with all his fury and strength. Mara anticipated this and ducked under the glowing shaft of light. Mara thrust her blade at his chest, but Skywalker was quick enough to catch it and turn it away.

Though her words said differently, Mara didn't doubt the man's skills. He was, after all, the son of Darth Vader and as strong if not stronger than his predecessor was. But Skywalker was a long way from having the control that his father had, but something in his eyes and the way he wielded his weapon told Mara that Skywalker had the capacity to surpass his father in strength one day. Mara needed to see to it that it didn't happen. One Vader was bad enough.

Skywalker slapped his enemy's blade down and proceeded to send her reeling back. Mara's attention was completely focused on the duel, but still she was able to realize that she was being moved to the roaring inferno that had once been a gift from the emperor. But she would fool the man into thinking he had her. It was almost shameful his stupidity was going to get him killed, but Skywalker had perpetrated a crime for which he could never be forgiven. 

Mara could feel the rising heat on her back and the flickering silhouettes on the ground were becoming more intense. Skywalker delivered an easily blocked chop then sprang his trap with a stab at her abdomen. 

Jade hopped to the side, making Skywalker overstep into the flames. But the former Knight stopped and Mara's danger-sense flared to life. She back-flipped on instinct and narrowly avoided the small cargo box projected at her from behind.

Skywalker was more cunning than she had thought.

The box clattered to the floor passed Skywalker who was coming in at her for another round. Mara parried a barrage of attacks before she could fire her own combo. She effectively took the battle away from the blaze, but wasn't confident about abandoning it and any of her own ways of utilizing it. Perhaps, she thought as she ducked a swing and interposed her blade between her chest and the lance of energy meaning to scythe her in half.

It was crystal-clear by the way Skywalker so easily flaunted his Force-control that Mara was going to need a real plan to get rid of him. Her first notion had been to merely wait for him to make a mistake and cut him down, but that wasn't going to be easy. Unlike Mara, if he got caught open he could simply hurl her through the air or fire debris to batter her down. The reason that he didn't just do that in the first place told Mara that his skills weren't complete. But Vader's were…that was a problem for later.

Mara retreated back a few paces, knocking strikes aside without much difficulty, trying to lure Skywalker into a false sense of security. When he wasn't paying attention, Mara would retaliate and send him back the way he came.

The moment came, Mara felt the opening in his attack, and sidestepped. She deflected his trust with one hand, brought her weapon to both as she spun, and aimed for Skywalker's unprotected back. But the Jedi anticipated the maneuver, waving his saber over his head and down to catch the attack. Mara reacted quickly; reversing her attack, but was stopped short again by Skywalker's reflexes. He slammed her arms down and shoulder-checked her to the deck. Skywalker was on her a she fell back, the dark side coursing through his veins and gradually making his abilities stronger, ready to skewer her when she landed on the ground. Mara regained her wits fast, using her nimble body and acrobatic skill to back-flip and land in a half crouch with her lightsaber up and ready. Skywalker missed his target, scoring a thirty-centimeter hole in the floor. Mara slashed at him, but Skywalker snapped his guard up and caught the attack full-force, but not toppling. Instead, he used the inertia to spin himself around and go for her legs. Mara hopped over it then arrested an assault to her waist.

Suddenly, Mara felt an invisible battering ram slam against her. She went flying across the room at break-neck speed—which was exactly what was going to happen to her when she hit the fast approaching bulkhead. Mara flipped her self so that her back was to the ceiling and hit the wall feet first, rebounding off of it and landed safely on the deck. Her injured legs gave way and she fell flat. Though the impact on the wall had been a lot of stress on her lower appendages, the fall was merely an act to make Skywalker think she had broken them. 

Skywalker approached methodically, a triumphant expression on his face. He stood over her, lightsaber held ready and smirked. "All too easy. Perhaps you're not as strong as my father thought." He rose his weapon up, turning the grip in his hands so that the point of the glowing blade faced her.

It was time. Mara closed her eyes in concentration, focusing her meager powers, and giving the impression she was preparing to die. But in truth, it was far from that. 

Come on, little Jedi; help me out right now.

For a moment she thought it wouldn't happen, that her abilities had regressed too far from all the strain, but then it happened. Mara sent the image in her head to the mind of her distracted opponent. In response, Luke Skywalker's eyes narrowed as he received the mental image of his former master looking at him with disgust at his weakness.

"Yoda…" He mumbled, taken aback. He looked at the woman laying before him in shock. "Yod—"

In that instant, Mara came alive with lightsaber in hand. On her knees, she wove the purple beam of her weapon in an arc that severed Skywalker's right arm just below the shoulder.

The man cried out in agony as he stumbled back and eventually tripped himself. His dismembered arm thumped down just before him, the silver cylinder in its gloved grasp came loose and spun away.

Skywalker rocked backed and forth in pain, feeling for where his arm had just been. He was subdued for the moment and severely wounded. Mara had won the battle and now it was time to end it. She mimicked her enemy's victorious actions, but without all the frivolous pauses. Mara twirled her saber around and drove it toward Skywalker's chest…

Before the tip could meet flesh, the lightsaber flew violently from Mara's hand and slammed against a far bulkhead. It gave a snap and sizzle as the impact damaged the weapon beyond use. And before Mara could react, she to was flying through the bay and an adjacent wall with enough force to send a jolt of pain through her spine. Darth Vader's wheezing had become more rapid in succession as he strode closer.


	5. PART ONE: MALICE CHAPTER FIVE

Chapter five

Mara is in danger, Leia thought. Can she really stand up to both Luke and Vader? No, her feelings told her. I have to help her! But how? I'm certainly not a Jedi and I seriously doubt that I'll suddenly become one in the next few minutes. And even if I save Mara, what about Threepio? He's still here somewhere and I have to rescue him to…What am I talking about? I don't even know where to start looking. What am I going to do? I don't even know where I am…The stormtroopers! 

Leia snapped awake to see the duracrete deck moving below her and the steady rhythm of footsteps. Her arms hurt, as if they were tightly shackled…or gripped. The floor wasn't moving, she was! With two stormtroopers carrying her by the arms. Slightly lifting her head to allow her to see in front of her but not give up the guise of unconsciousness, Leia spied three troops and an officer leading the way. And at least three stormtroopers had to be bringing up the rear. Not much she could do about getting away unless she wanted to get gunned down…but wait! —She was Vader's prized captive, surely he wouldn't allow one of his officers or lowly stormtroopers to kill her, no matter what. And if she could grab on of her escorts' rifles, she might be able to take a few down with a surprise attack. And with any luck, she could dart into some room or corridor and regroup. It just might work—it had to work. Because if it didn't, they were all pretty much done for. 

Here's hoping the Force is with me… 

Leia snatched the carbine out of the holster of the trooper on the right and fired on both sides as she fell to her knees. A blue arc caught one man, and then another dropped the one on the opposite side. Leia snapped off another stun blast between two stormtroopers and catching the third. Her next shot was a lethal crimson bolt that struck the officer in the chest.

"Stun her! Stun her!" One of the remaining stormtroopers called. As blue arc's traced the outline of the princess's body.

Leia was on her feet again and slamming into one of the two stormtroopers before her and making for the corner two meters away. Leia twisted back as she ran, blasted the last of the three stormtroopers that had been leading her, and made it to the cover of the next corridor with no time to spare. The first of the other three was around the bend in an instant, but was cut down by Leia's pilfered gun. 

Organa took the time to dash into a nearby open room. Inside, she took the sitting officer by surprise then smacked the door lock into activation. There was a soft click followed by the pounding of fists on the door. Leia gripped her blaster tighter in preparation for the entrance, nervous sweat starting to form at her brow. 

That had been close, she told herself. And it wasn't over yet. Those stormtroopers, followed by reinforcements, would be through that door in no time.

Leia let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and reluctantly lowered her blaster. The stormtroopers outside had no way of getting in without blasting through the door and in turn risking hitting their runaway prisoner. Besides, Leia was trapped, and they had to know that. They would simply wait for someone to open the door and then they would overwhelm her. But Leia had no intention of letting them do anything of the sort.

Nonetheless, Leia had a few minutes to stop and plan her next move. She turned away from the door and back to the desk that the incapacitated officer had been sitting at. There wasn't much she could use from it…except the data terminal. If she could get into the computer and find some type of map of the station, she might be able to find some other way out of this room—a garbage chute, a hidden passage—something. It was a long shot—Leia wasn't exactly the galaxy's best slicer—but a station map shouldn't be too hard to find. She went to activate the terminal and found it to already be running in standby mode. What's more, the man she had blasted had all ready accessed his security clearance. But as Leia hunted for a map she found his clearance lacking—nothing but a low-level tech. 

The former princess of Alderaan began to doubt a miracle would present itself and the muffled orders coming from stormtroopers outside didn't help her stress level. She wished she had Mara with her right now. Actually she wished she could have a myriad of people at her side, all more adept at this kind of situation than her. Where was Wedge, or Lando, or that incorrigible Dash Rendar when you needed them? Where was Ben Kenobi, Jan Dadonna…Han, Chewie, and Luke…? It was terrifying to think that she was completely alone for the first time in some many years. She had been through a lot in the service of the Alliance and had actually come to convince herself that no matter how dire the situation, so knight in shining armor would come a rescue her. But now Han and Chewie were dead—Luke, dead on the inside—and now this mysterious Mara Jade had her own problems to worry about. To think, after all the madness, this was how it was going to end. She was cornered like a rat. But if she had to be a rat, she would be a womp rat and go down fighting tooth to claw. 

Suddenly, she saw it. 

The security commander stepped lively into the mass of stormtroopers collected at the sealed entrance to the nondescript technician's office. The white armored sentinels had been given the order to stand down wait for further orders. He came to a stop at the face of the one bearing the insignia of a captain.

"Where is she?" He asked crisply, blacked gloved hands at rest behind his back.

In a voice utterly indistinguishable from any of the others, he replied, "The prisoner has locked herself inside that office, sir. She's cornered."

A triumphant grin crept across the face of the officer. The rebel had caused a lot of bloodshed in the last half hour. He would have thought the infamous Leia Organa would be more resourceful than that. Honestly, he didn't see what Lord Vader saw in her. She was just another idiotic rebel. "You are certain she is in there?"

"Positive, sir."

"Very well. Set for stun and have your men fire the second they get the chance." 

"Yes, sir."

The officer signaled to the pair of technicians he had brought with him and the two set forth overriding the locks. The stormtrooper captain likewise gesture to his men to prepare for the moment they would have to take the prisoner by force. When all was set, the techs looked to their commander for authorization to open the door. Suddenly remembering that Organa was armed, he quietly stepped away from line of fire. He nodded.

The door popped open with a click. The squad of stormtroopers snapped their rifles up but did not fire. The security officer frowned, and then slowly walked into the doorway. The stormtrooper captain followed him without a word. 

"Trooper, rifle," The officer commanded.

The stormtrooper handed over his weapon without a second thought. The officer switched the setting back to LETHAL and pumped a crimson bolt into the chest of the incompetent soldier. "Damn clone," the officer murmured as the other fell down dead with a thud. He spun around to face the others and said angrily, "Inform all units that the prisoner has escaped into the ventilation system and could be on any level now."

Lord Vader would not be pleased.

"Copy, sir. Widening search for prisoner." The patrolling stormtrooper replied. Though Leia couldn't see the troops from the vent in the ceiling, she was able to discern that there were four currently walking this corridor. But that was no guarantee on the number in the accompanying halls. For now, she was safe—relatively safe—and could afford the luxury of waiting until they passed.

The stormtrooper's comlink switched-off. "We're all ready patrolling the halls, what else does he want?"

One of the others answered, "I don't know," his voice decreasing steadily as they passed on. There was nothing for the nest few moments and Leia decided it wouldn't be smart to stay up in the shafts forever. Besides, she had work to do. First, she was going to find C-3PO. Second, they were going to find a way off this station. And hopefully, third, leave with the mysterious Jedi Knight that had come to rescue her. Leia couldn't help but fear that Mara was in real trouble having to face down Luke and Vader—something Leia knew she could never do. But there was time to worry later, as seemed to always be the case in her life. She had found her way to droid maintenance level in hopes of finding C-3PO and that was what she needed to do now.

Quietly, she slid the cover off the ventilation hole and dropped the few meters down to the deck. As soon as her feet hit, she dashed for cover behind a supply crate and readied her pilfered blaster carbine for use. Even if she managed to completely avoid all the stormtroopers on the level—a miracle she couldn't depend on—she still had no idea how to find Threepio. As dangerous as it sounded, she needed to find the floor's security station and access the holocams. That ought to at least point her in the right direction. But where was the security station? It was all one question after another. To find Threepio, she needed to find the room he was being housed in. To find that room, she needed to find the security station. And to find the security station, she needed to…be a stormtrooper? It was risky—too risky for normal circumstances—but that was hardly what this was. Leia wasn't merely trying to escape the clutches of the Empire, but now she had to rescue her rescuer. She knew Mara had to have risked all to get to her, so Leia had to do the same. Leia needed to pull-off the same trick that Han and Luke had four years ago. As crazy as it sounded, Leia needed to find one of the stormtroopers and assume his identity long enough to accomplish her goals. Easy, except she had no idea how she was going to do that, she was a bit too short for a stormtrooper(as Luke had been when they had first met), and it was next to impossible to do it without attracting any attention. Doing the impossible was more a feat for Han, Luke, Wedge Antillies, or this Mara Jade—not her. She couldn't do this alone.

_Think, Leia, think, she told herself, __there's got to be ways around this problem._

Then it hit her. It was obvious how to get a stormtrooper secluded long enough to incapacitate him—aside from the unacceptable but more obvious reason. All she needed was a bit of luck on her side once again. 

Stealthily making her way through the corridors, ducking behind crates and dashing around corners, Leia was quick to find what she was looking for: A refresher station. Now it was a waiting game for a stormtrooper that needed to relieve his self. And for Mara's sake, Leia wished that it wouldn't be a long one. A long handful of minutes dragged on and Leia began to fear that her plan was foolhardy when footsteps sounded on the deck. Voices could be heard, but the bearers were not yet close enough for her to here.

"…did you even _check the 'freshers? Huh?" the voice was that of a young man. Leia didn't dare risk a glance at who it might be._

"Yes," That was a stormtrooper. "The entire floor was swept and there are patrols covering every corridor."

"Then there's no reason to believe this prisoner's in there."

"Again," the stormtrooper continued. "I advise you to return to your work station where it would be safer."

"So how about I just go right here on the floor? Huh? Give you bone-heads a spill to clean up."

"Hold it," Another stormtrooper recommended.

"Hold this," the young man countered. "Now out of my way."

The door to the refresher station could be heard to open and silence followed. Then the stormtrooper sergeant spoke to the others. "Forget him, then. Come men, we have a prisoner to search for."

"Yes, sir," Two others replied. They marched off down the corridor.

Leia decided she would have to make due with whoever was in the fresher and moved when the way was clear. The door hissed open and Leia entered. Across the room, standing at a urinal was a black uniformed technician a bit taller than Leia. She quickly inspected him and decided that with the cap pulled down firmly over her hair, she just might be able to pass as a young male tech—if she avoided contact with anyone. What's more, she realized, this man might know the way to where C-3PO was being held.

The man zipped his trousers and casually turned around to stare directly in the muzzle of Leia's blaster. He gasped and went completely still.

"Looks like you should have taken the advice of those stormtroopers, Grade Six," Leia said, noticing the man's rank insignia on his chest.

"Don't kill me," he begged. 

"That depends. If you tell me what I want to know, I might be in the mood to spare you."

"Anything!" the cowardly tech asked.

"An old model protocol droid was brought in yesterday—a gold Threepio unit. Where is it?"

"I…I don't know."

Leia pressed the muzzle to the man's eye ball, causing his to repeat, "I don't know about a protocol droids. Uh, uh, we got a few new GNK power droids two days ago. I—"

"One…"

"I don't know!" The tech whimpered.

"Two..."

"Please don't kill me! Help! Help!"

"They can't hear you. Three…goodbye."

Leia feigned pulling the trigger, fearful that the man really didn't know about C-3PO and was telling the truth. She couldn't really kill him if he knew or not—Leia was no murderer.

"Wait! I think I remember now," the man suddenly yelped. "Just please don't kill me!"

"Talk!"

"Uh, we got an old gold protocol droid from security. Standard procedure was to melt it down because it was obsolete, but Lord Vader had an interest in it and we got a message from Moff Jerjerrod that the droid not be touched."

"Where is it?"

"Its in storage down the hall. Unit Four-Two-Seven. Now please don't kill me!"

Leia put down the gun and the tech relaxed with a sigh. In that instant, Leia swung the weapon back up and pistol-whipped the tech across the face. Leia heard bones crack as the tech fell to the floor.

Unit 427, Leia reminded herself. She had seen that, along with a wealth of other storage units on her trek over here. That was to be her next stop. But first she needed a change in apparel.

In moment s the unconscious man was stooped-up, half-naked, on the commode inside a refresher stall. Leia pulled the black cap of the uniform over her haphazardly bundled hair and checked herself in the mirror. Clad in the black imperial uniform, Leia couldn't help but feel sick to her stomach at the thought of joining Luke and Vader. She would make them pay for all this one day. She would avenge the deaths of Han, Chewie, and every other Rebel that had died because of the Empire. They would have justice…one day. That she was sure of.

In an instant, light became dark and nothingness became consciousness. Seethreepio's photoreceptors came alive and quickly focused on the very feminine looking imperial officer before him. How odd that the Empire would hire such young human beings. Surely they had all their fill of officer candidates. Perhaps this one was some form of prodigy. Curious indeed, the droid thought.

"Threepio," The officer called to him.

The golden droid suddenly became aware that he was not looking a boyish male, but of a familiar female. "Mistress Leia? Is that really you?"

"Threepio am I glad to see you," Leia replied with a warm smile she thought was impossible at this point.

"Oh dear, it is you! Thank the Maker that someone came to rescue you me. Oh, I thought I was deactivated for good!" 

Leia shook her head. "We don't have much time. We have to get out of here and find a way off this station."

"Why yes, of course. But what about the others?"

Leia sighed. "It's just us, Threepio. I'll explain when we have more time. Right now we have to move."

"Oh, dear…"

"Just act natural and no one will bother us. We're just a technician and his droid. If anyone does stop us, let me do the talking." Leia explained to the Seethreepio as they briskly walked the corridors that would lead to the nearest hanger bay.

"But, Mistress Leia," the droid said quietly so no one else could hear, "how will we get a ship without causing alarm? Surely a Grade Six technician does not have authority to fly a shuttle."

"Don't worry; I've all ready though of that. The only problem will be convincing the guards that I'm a man."

"How will you do that? What will you do if he recognizes you?"

"I don't know," she shook her head. "I don't know."

The entrance to the level's hanger came upon them sooner than Leia would have liked and the two went through nervously.

Two stormtroopers stalwartly stood just inside of the door to the massive grey and white hanger. A _Lambda-class imperial shuttle sat quietly on the durasteel deck a few dozen meters away. Its lowered ramp likewise guarded by stormtroopers._

"State your business," The one on the right said, his blaster carbine clenched against his chest.

"I…" Leia coughed and dropped the pitch of her voice a few octaves deeper. She knew enough about acting to know not to try too hard to sound male and that young men with core-accents tended to sound more feminine than others. "Grade Six technician reporting. I've been ordered to update the navigational systems of that shuttle."

"One moment please," The trooper replied. His helmet's internal comlink clicked on and he relayed the news to the control station above. Leia couldn't hear what was being said back to the trooper, but she didn't need to. She all ready knew that the officers had received no such orders to allow her, or rather him, to see the craft.

The stormtrooper revealed as much to he a moment later.

"My orders come from the Death Star commander himself, sir. I am to overall the computer systems of his personal shuttle."

"This is not Moff Jerjerrod's personal shuttle," the other trooper said angrily. 

"Nonsense. I have the information right here…"

Leia reached into her tunic and snapped up the tech's hold-out blaster pistol hidden there. She fired twice, catching the troops point-blank in the chest armor. The second the bodies were out of her line of sight, Leia fired at the stormtroopers guarding the shuttle. Up above, the imperial officers struggled to call for help.

"Run, Threepio!"

It hadn't been the most brilliant of plans but Leia had been fresh out of good ideas. Now if they could only get in and take off they could swing around and rescue Mara from the clutches of Vader and Luke.

Up the ramp and into the cockpit, Leia raced to fire up the ships engines. Threepio was right behind and came in with limbs flailing in panic. "Oh, we're going to be destroyed for sure!"

Leia took the pilot's seat and brought the ship online. Just then, Threepio let out a loud yelp. 

"Mistress Leia, look!" he pointed to the door they had come through, now filled with stormtroopers. "What ever shall we do?"

Leia didn't panic and came up with an idea she was sure she'd laugh about if they got through this. Sit down in the co-pilot's chair and take the control stick."

The droid did as told. 

Leia brought the shields and weapons systems up and ready, then commanded. "Aim the guns at them and pull the trigger underneath your index-finger!"

"But I can't fire on living beings, it's against my programming!"

"Then fire around them! Just keep them from coming near here!"

"But Mistress Leia!"

"Now, Threepio!"

Two sets of crimson beams fired from the twin laser cannons mounted atop the ship. They slammed into the bulkhead above the door and caused the stormtroopers to scatter less they be struck by a weapon that was designed to hull starships. More volley's followed, all the while Threepio cried, "Oh, dear. Oh, dear!" But it was working, the stormtroopers, as much as their numbers may increase, could not come near the ship. Their return blaster fire merely bounced off the shuttle's shields. A few minutes more and the ships engines were fired up and ready for use. Leia hit the repulsor, retracted the landing gear, and spun the ship one-hundred-eighty-degrees to face the magnetic containment field.

"Fire at the magcon field projector." Leia commanded.

Seethreepio did so and with a few shots, caused the artificial atmosphere to collapse, opening the ship hanger to the dead of space. The great suction flung the ship and the troopers out into the void. But Leia allowed the ship to go with the flow until they were away. Once she was certain they were at a safe distance, Leia spun the shuttle around and headed back towards the Death Star.

"Mistress Leia, what are you doing? We just left the Death Star. Why are we returning?"

"We have to go back for Mara."

Mara flew from where she had been standing and violently slammed into the bulkhead behind her. She was sure she heard ribs crack over the sound of her scream of pain. She remained against the bulkhead, a meter off the floor, as if she were stuck to it. In reality it was the work of Darth Vader's mastery of the Force.

The Dark Lord of the Sith was furious at her victory over the overconfident Skywalker. For the first time since she had met Vader, he was acting out of pure, unbridled emotion. His anger and hate were swelling so large that Mara could almost taste it. It was not a good sign for Mara Jade.

"Perhaps you are more powerful than I thought, Assassin," Vader's tone masked his rage well. "I now understand what your master saw in you."

Mara could feel an invisible vise-like grip on her wrists, ankles, neck, and chest. With each of Vader's words that contracted to a great degree than loosened, sending enormous jolts of pain through Mara's body.

"Nonetheless, you are too weak to be a real threat to anyone. Much the same with your master."

Without warning, Mara flew across the room, smacking the ground just in front of Vader and sliding along the polished deck. "He claimed to be a master of the Sith arts, but he had no concern for our traditions. That infidel was no better than the Jedi he so hated."

"He was strong enough to make the most powerful Jedi ever lick his boots," Mara taunted between labored breaths. Slowly, all her joints aching, she began to stand. But Vader wouldn't have it. In an instant she was flung onto another bulkhead, all ready stained with the blood of the stormtroopers she'd killed.

Vader turned to face her. "Always two there are. A master and an apprentice. No less and _no more."_

Mara felt her windpipe tighten slightly, not enough to cut off her short breath, but enough to torture her. She wanted to grab at the unseen hand around her throat but her hands were completely restrained. 

"A true Sith Lord needs no assassin to do his bidding when a capable apprentice is at his side."

Mara pushed passed her slow gagging to ask, "Is that what this is about...Jealously, Vader? I thought Sith…were above it."

Vader's rage surged even higher, fueling the uncontrollable blaze that was his dark side power. His right hand snapped up and projected a crackling manifestation of that power. The Force-Lightning flooded into Mara and set her insides on fire. The blue-purple bolts danced around her body and slowly sapped away her life force.

"I can feel your pain, assassin. Beg for your life and I will quickly end this frivolous game once and for all." The onslaught let up so that she could answer.

Mara smiled, thought it pained her to do so. Never before had she felt such pain. But the odd thing was that it didn't matter to her. She didn't care if she died here or not. Leia would escape and somehow learn to use her own powers and one day she would destroy Vader and Skywalker. Every second Vader spent with Mara bought Leia one more second to get away. "Funny…I was about to say the same thing to you, Lord Vader," she forced a chuckle.

Vader swung his outstretched arm and Mara was slammed into the bulkhead opposite the hanger's magcon field. She was dropped, and then was ripped away from it to land at Vader's feet. She got to her knees just as Vader ignited the scarlet blade of his lightsaber. "Now you join your master…"

Mara's eyes went wide in excitement at what she saw beyond the Sith Lord. She looked up into the soulless eye pieces of his helmet and gave a bloody toothed grin. "Not today." She looked past him and nodded.

Outside the magnetic containment field, a white Lambda-class shuttle hovered. Upon Mara's signal, the duel set of twin laser cannons sounded their fury and collapsed the magcon field completely.

The atmosphere in the hanger was sucked out with incredible strength and furiousness. Mara shot past an unmoved Darth Vader and the floating unconscious body of his Force-held son. She used what she could of the Force herself and guided her body into the now open bay of the shuttle. The landing ramp had been closing before she had got inside and it was only a handful of moments before the hatch had sealed and cabin repressurized. Mara hit the bulkhead of the shuttle with the same force she had suddenly grown accustomed with. She couldn't help but laugh at the thought of it all being over.

Mara needed serious medical attention but knew she could get no help until the shuttle was safely in hyperspace. She pushed back her aches and pains and by sheer will alone stood-up and made her way to the cockpit. Inside were a black-uniformed Princess Leia Organa and her gold protocol droid co-pilot. She said nothing to the two and bent in to dial up a hyperspace course for them to use.

"This…will take us…back to my cruiser…"

With that, she fell to the floor and was consumed by weariness and pain.

Mara snapped awake as she hit the floor of the imperial shuttle and found that her pain was completely gone. It was at that point that she realized that she was no longer in the cockpit of the shuttle but rather in a pristine void filled only by her and a diminutive alien resting on a cane.

"What do you want now?" Mara asked. "We have to get out of here."

"To begin Leia's dark training?" The late Jedi Master Yoda asked her.

"I'll train Leia the only way I know how: As a weapon to destroy enemies. Whether its with the light side or the dark is none of my concern, Jedi."

Yoda looked down at the floor in disappointment. "So much could you accomplish, if only you were willing."

"Listen," Mara implored. "I won't let her become like them, if that's what you're worried about. I'm not a Jedi and I'm not a Sith. I'm just an assassin. And the way I see it, training Leia as one will be advantageous."

"Help you I can, Jedi could you become." Yoda pleaded. "Jedi, Leia must become if she is to be trained in the Force. For if trained as you say, then an agent of the Sith she will surely become—like her brother and father."

"I won't let that happen!"

"Control it, you cannot. Control _yourself_, you cannot. If confront Vader and Luke she does, she will die and so will you. No match, are your skills compared to Vader's. Luke will grow _strong. A master of the Force is Vader, but you are not. If oppose the Sith is your wish, do so as a Jedi!"_

"I can't become a Jedi! I can't betray my master!"

"Gone, is Palpatine!"

Mara offered no retort to that statement.

"Searched your heart, have I. Darkness lays there…"

Mara didn't—couldn't disagree with that statement. She was a weapon of Emperor Palpatine, a master of evil. To do the bidding of such a vile person required moral flexibility—some could say a capacity for evil. Mara really didn't know if she was evil or not. It never really mattered to her. It had always been about serving her master's wishes no matter what. No matter what the expense to her soul.

"…but within it, also a great capacity for good," Yoda proclaimed. "You need only accept my help to fulfill that capacity. Through me, know you will how to train Leia as a Jedi. You need only accept your destiny."

She could feel it down in the pit of her soul that everything he said was right. Try as she might, Mara could never truly accept the atrocities the Emperor committed and had her commit. She wasn't evil like him and he had always made her believe that that was weakness. Mara couldn't afford to be weak, less the Emperor find her usefulness at its end. But a Jedi? She had been raised to hate the Jedi and everything about them. The Jedi were nothing but bleeding-heart zealots who would rather contemplate there actions then aide the galaxy. That was why Palpatine said he had destroyed them.

A tear ran down Mara's cheek as she considered the man she so idolized. She realized that she had never believed a word of what he said.

Mara looked up at the small Jedi Master. How so much wisdom fit into such a small body, she couldn't fathom. "I'll do it…"

Yoda gave no cheer of success or sound of elation. Merely he nodded his white bristled head in acknowledgement. He looked at her with confidence. "A gift, I have for you. A technique you will learn to do yourself soon. A healing trance, your body has been in. Your injuries, they will be healed."

With that, Mara's connection was broken and she vanished into nothingness. Yoda stood alone in contemplation for several moments before he was joined by two other Jedi of the past. The two Jedi materialized as if from no where and stood before the diminutive master.

"Can she really be trusted with such a serious task?" The dark skinned, bald-headed Jedi Master Mace Windu asked.

"Have no other choice do we. A grave mistake has Obi-Wan and I made."

The white-haired Jedi Master beside Mace nodded grimly. 

"What of Kyle Katarn?" the skeptical Windu asked. 

"Much time will there be until he begins his path as a Jedi. Too much time we will lose as the Sith grow stronger," Yoda explained. "Katarn's destiny lies upon a different path than Mara's. Indeed, a rebel is he, but from Mara Jade, Leia will learn how to destroy the Empire."

"If she is not seduced during her training." Mace countered."… I don't trust this Jade."

Yoda looked up at the image of his old friend, "Trust me, do you?"

Mace Windu grimaced and gave a defeated sigh, "You know that I will always stand by your judgment, master."

Yoda looked to Obi-Wan Kenobi. "We overestimated Luke's ability to understand the evil of the Empire. Perhaps with Leia's training being conducted by a former emissary of that Empire, Leia could be made to comprehend the gravity of her becoming a Jedi. This is something I do not think she could learn from Kyle Katarn or any other."

"Then it is agreed?" Yoda asked.

Mace crossed his arms, "I still have my misgivings about this…but if you say that it will work, I will support your decision." Mace conceded.

"Leia must become a Jedi at any cost. Her life now outweighs that of half the galaxy's inhabitants. Mara Jade can protect her until she is capable." Obi-Wan answered.

"Agreed, it is. A Jedi, Leia will be…"

The flickering of the blistering Death Star reactor core cast ghastly shadows on the two figures positioned before it. All other lights in the Emperor's Throne Room had been extinguished and the only light came from the blazing reactor core a hundred meters below. Luke Skywalker had waited his entire life for this moment, but only realized it a few days ago. All his life Luke had wanted to know his father. Not just know his father but be a part of his life. Luke wanted to stand beside his father and joyously consume any information his mentor would have. He had had this dream when he was younger, back on Tatioone when he thought his father a dead navigator on a spice freighter. He wanted it even more when Ben had told him of his Jedi heritage. And now he had it as his father's apprentice. Not as a Jedi, but as a Sith—a true warrior of justice and order. Days ago he had surrendered to the imperials on Endor in the hopes of turning his father from the dark side. But when Vader came to collect him he felt that that might be impossible. Indeed, on the shuttle ride to the Death Star, it was Darth Vader had shown him the truth of _his ways. Luke understood now why the Jedi had to be destroyed and the Sith had to rule. The Jedi were weak hypocrites. They were master mediators, but they refused to use their abilities to save their beloved Republic. They claimed to be the champions of all people despite their position, but instead sacrificed the lives of the "expendable" when it meant saving one corrupt politician. At ten thousand strong they could not keep order in the galaxy. When the galaxy was falling apart from Palpatine's schemes, they continued with their practices instead of adapting to best serve the public. _

They ignored the true power of the Force. In a thousand generations the wisest of Jedi Masters could not come to the obvious conclusion that to achieve true power, sacrifices had to be made. What sacrifices the Jedi did make only served to protect their order, not the people. Beings are creatures of emotion and to deny that was foolish. The Jedi denied their emotions because they ruined judgment. The Sith believe this also, however they were able to focus their emotion into their power, channeling it so that it did not affect their actions. If emotion was to be avoided, then why wouldn't the Force manifest itself in droids? Because it was to be embraced, not shunned. Because of this, the Sith gained true power and true insight. The Force was a gift that the Jedi squandered because they were too affixed to old traditions to ever try anything new. Their destruction was the will of the Force. Luke could feel that much in the Force.

Darth Vader approached without a word. He stopped and stared down at his son, saying, "The Empire can only survive as long as there are two Sith: a master and an apprentice….A Jedi stands before me."

Standing on a railed catwalk directly over the reactor core, Luke unclipped his Jedi weapon with his only hand and held it over the flashing pit to his side. Without further wait, Luke released his handmade weapon into the bluish abyss below. The metallic cylinder it the core and disintegrated with a _crack-snap. Along with it he methodically stripped articles of clothing and sent it into oblivion with the lightsaber. When he was down to nothing but his undergarment, he stopped and kneeled before his father and master. His last vestiges of being a Jedi gone, Vader continued._

"You have intentionally killed your confederates and remorselessly crippled the Rebellion. You have shown nothing but spite for those who had trusted you and betrayed the last of the Jedi Knights. You, who are a true Sith Lord. Together, as master and apprentice, father and son, we shall bring justice and order to the galaxy and end this misguided Rebellion against the true rulers. Do you accept these duties?"

"I do." Luke said.

"Then the Jedi Luke Skywalker is dead. Arise and be reborn as a Sith, my Darth Malice…"


	6. PART TWO: 3AGNSTTHEGLXY CHAPTER SIX

**Part Two**

** Three against the Galaxy**

**  
**

CHAPTER SIX

The stars were beautiful that night. In fact, Leia realized, everything seemed beautiful since she had embraced the mystical power called the Force. Two years had passed since the day that changed her life in ways she never thought possible. Leia Organa, former princess of Alderaan, was now a Jedi Knight. Or at least she was training to be one under Mara Jade. No, Leia wasn't a knight yet and, she felt, far from it. But the Force was with her, every step of the way, offering her enlightenment that she never imagined. This life seemed so alien, yet so comfortable at the same time. The Force was strong in her family, Luke had told her. In time, he had assured, she would use it as he had. It seemed so impossible that night, everything he said seemed so, but here she was…a Jedi in training as Luke had once been. When she had heard that she might one day wield the same power that Luke had, she had never dreamed that it would be for the soul purpose of opposing him. That was her purpose, Mara had repeatedly told her in the beginning. She was the very last hope for the galaxy. Mara lacked the power to take on one of Leia's family members, let alone both. And that was the other dilemma. Mara thought it possible that soon Leia could be strong take on Luke if need be and eventually be powerful enough to stop him outright. But Vader was a different story. He was strong beyond anyone's estimates, including the Emperor's. He would only grow stronger now that he was reunited with Luke. Could he be stopped in time? That was one thing that was against Leia and Mara. Leia had to be ready before the two Sith found her and eliminated her from the equation. She was the prey of two tenacious hunters who would not stop until she was either dead or with them. Leia saw the two alternatives as one and the same. Leia understood the pressure Luke had once dealt with. He had been the Alliance's only hope.

Now Leia wasn't sure the Alliance still existed. Mara had told her that the imperial scuttlebutt had been that the rebellion against the Empire was long over. With the failed destruction of the Death Star, no one dared to stand against Vader and Luke. But in Leia's heart of hearts, she knew that couldn't be possible. As long as people longed for freedom and justice, the Empire would never be safe. The spirit of the Alliance was in the hearts of millions and no Death Star could ever smite that. The Alliance soldiers were survivors and Leia couldn't bear to think they could be truly defeated. They were out there, somewhere; Leia knew as much. And they would be gathering strength as they always had. Leia felt she would go insane if she ever believed otherwise.

How she longed to be amongst her friends. She had missed them for so long that at times Mara commented that it was impeding her growth as a Jedi. If only they could leave and find the Rebels. Then Leia could get the peace of mind she so needed. But Mara had explained time and time again that that just couldn't happen right now. They were safe here on the planet of Phorliss; as safe as two people wanted by the Empire could be on an imperial world. It was with staunchest convincing that Mara made Leia accept the idea of hiding on a planet controlled by the Empire. For one, it was backwater with no real importance save its space ports. And an imperial ran world was the last place anyone would look for the pair. But there were also the draw backs. Leia was too well known around the galaxy to leave the forest that Mara's cruiser rested in. Mara, relatively unknown to the Empire, could walk around with near impunity. This was required for them to get supplies, money, and food. The stripped down parts from the stolen shuttle had gone along way towards securing their finances but Mara insisted on working as a waitress at a space port bar. She said that if they both hid in the jungles all day long, the Imperials could get the drop on them and they'd never even know it was coming. Leia could do little to disagree.

And so it was nearly every day. Leia would spend the time relatively alone, with only the company of See-Threepio and Mara's assistant droid Kay-Three. It was a constant trial of Jedi exercises and physical endurance. Not only did Leia have to know the ways of the Force, but also the ways of the Jedi Knights. That required her to always be at peak physical ability, even more so then she thought she had been. Where once was the athletic princess of Alderaan was now replaced by the increasingly agile and powerful Jedi in training. Before Leia could do minor gymnastic feats if her concentration was high. Leia now found herself doing leaps and bounds she never thought possible for human beings.

Leia chuckled slightly. It was becoming harder and harder to deny that she was going to be a Jedi sooner or later. That was if she could avoid the blade of her father and brother. To that end she had begun some three months ago her instructions in the ways lightsaber combat. Leia was only in the beginning stages of building her own weapon, but was left Mara's new weapon to train with. Mara did not have the power in the Force to confront Vader and Luke like Leia did. To even the playing field, Mara had begun practicing Jar'Kai, the ancient Jedi art of wielding two lightsabers at one time. To compliment that, she had built a second lightsaber to train with. However the weapon was left to Leia whenever she needed practice.

The saber was an awkward weapon to use in the hands of someone taught to use a blaster to defend herself. Indeed it was most unlike the fencing swords Leia had toyed with in her defense classes on Alderaan. Everyone plays with toy swords as kids, pretending to be swashbuckling heroes of the ancient stories. It gets in one's head that they can handle a lightsaber if ever one got his or her hands on one. That was what was meant when they say that a lightsaber is more dangerous to an unskilled user than to anyone it's wielded against. A lightsaber hilt weighs around a kilometer. It seems to get in the mind that with the blade, made of pure light, extended, that the weapon would take on more weight. An unskilled user would over compensate because of this fallacy of logic. No, the lightsaber arts were unique, as Leia had learned. Not a form of power and strength, but of agility and grace. Mara had pressed this into Leia many times before allowing her to so much as touch a lightsaber. When the time came Leia couldn't help but feel trepidation at having the blazing weapon in her hands. And waving the blade around had felt so strange and alien, yet at the same time, almost instinctual Indeed the Skywalker blood was in her. 

Leia chortled again. Mara had said the result of her training would decide if that blood would stay in her.

Jade had assured Leia that she was making great progress in her lightsaber training and would be ready to wield one by the time her own was finished. Leia could only hope that she was right. As of now she still felt much more comfortable with her blaster at her side then she did the lightsaber. A blaster may be random and clumsy, but for now it would get the job done if needed.

Leia patted the gun on her hip as she looked up at the sky again. It was getting relatively late. Mara was usually home by now. But Leia didn't fret. She understood Mara's personality completely. The woman, despite all her efforts to train her prodigal apprentice, was a loner. She seemed most at ease when she kept to herself. Leia had no doubt that that also factored into her decision to go off into the city to work. She had a reason for being late, whatever it was.

Mara Jade slowly sipped at the tumbler of Phorliss brandy. She set the half empty glass on the empty bar and leaned back on the stool. The tavern was closed now. Had been for about an hour. The tables had been cleaned and the floors mopped. On the other side of the crescent-shaped counter the massive Houk owner and bartender, Gorb Drig, stood counting the day's finances.

Mara took another drink. So this was the life of the Emperor's Hand now, she thought; Jedi trainer by day, waitress by night. Palpatine would be rolling in his grave if he had one. But that fact didn't matter much to Mara anymore. It had taken a while, but over the last two years the strange Jedi ghost known as Yoda had rid her of any loyalty to the Emperor. No, Mara wasn't the Emperor's Hand. 

_Hell, she thought. __The Emperor doesn't even have hands anymore._

What had once been a lie to convince Leia to join her was now true. Mara was a Jedi Knight, as proclaimed by Yoda some time ago. Mara saw it as more of a field promotion than a genuine one. In fact her own training as a Jedi was yet to be complete. It was an odd set up. Yoda was nothing but a spirit. He had the knowledge to train Leia as a Jedi Knight, but lacked the physical body to do so. But Mara all ready knew the Force and how to use it. Yoda merely needed to guide her into training herself. And then Mara would go and instruct Leia. A simple plan that might prove to be in vain.

Organa had the power, there was no mistaking that. But Mara had long ago realized that the idea of her ever being more powerful than her father and brother was ludicrous. In a few short years, Leia was supposed to be strong enough to topple Darth Vader? There was a slim chance with Skywalker, but Leia could never defeat Vader. And neither could Mara for that matter. Jade had stressed these concerns to Yoda more times then she could count. But the tiny Jedi Master of old had yet to loose faith. Mara supposed that that was a good thing. At least someone was being optimistic. And for all Mara knew, maybe Yoda was right. He was the Jedi Master, not her. If anyone could say that that Leia had the potential to defeat Vader, he could. It was clear that Yoda's understanding of the Force matched, if not rivaled, that of Palpatine.

"Nothing is impossible when dealing with the Force," Yoda always said. Not very reassuring, but Mara could never think of anything to rebuke that statement. Nevertheless, it was going to take a true miracle for things to work out the way the Jedi Master hoped it would.

Gorb Drig lifted his bulbous light green head. "A good haul today, Chiara."

Chiara Lorn. That was the name that Gorb Drig knew her by. One of Mara's many aliases in her career as the Emperor's Hand. Though that career was dead now, the need for alternate identities lived on with greater force than ever.

"Business has been on the up and up in the last few months," Drig said with a smile, dividing up the money for Mara's share. "We'll be able to get the renovations this place has needed. That'll bring in more business. That means more money. Soon I'll be able to hire on a few more hands here. Yeah…" Drig moved the imperial credit chits across the counter to Mara. "Here, a little something extra for being such a great employee."

Mara took the money with a smile. "You're too generous, Gorb. Surely you can use the extra money yourself. After all, I just work here. But you have to pay to keep this place running."

"Oh, don't worry. It's nothing that I can't spare. Things are good under the Vader economy, eh?"

Mara forced a smile. "Yeah, I guess so."

Little did Drig know that his humble waitress had aspirations to destroy Vader. Mara had always wondered what he would think. Gorb was no imperial, despite the fact that he owned a cantina on an imperial world. He was just a simple business man, trying to make his way in the galaxy. Mara wouldn't be surprised if Drig actually despised the Empire; perhaps enough to be a Rebel sympathizer. But it all didn't really matter. There was no need to drag Gorb into the mess, regardless of whether he wanted to or not. But Jade couldn't help but wonder.

"In fact," Drig continued, "with the increase in crowds, we're going to need an extra set of hands to keep up. So starting tomorrow I gotta start a search for another waitress"

"As long as it doesn't put a dent in my wages, Gorb, I'd appreciate the help."

"Good. Good. I can only hope that we can find someone as talented as you are."

Mara finished her drink and Gorb swept it up. "Well, I guess I'll shove off now, Gorb."

"You know you're always welcome to stay here as long as you wish, Chiara."

Mara patted his scaly hand and got up. With a smile she said goodbye and left for the night. Her senses were alive with strange activity. The prospect of the new server had sent a ripple through the Force. It was strange that something so inconsequential would trigger that. Mara would be on her guard about this that was for sure.

"Madame Director, there is a gentlemen here who says he has an appointment."

Ysanne Isard, the Director of Imperial Intelligence, grinned at the sound of the voice coming from the intercom on her desk. The desk, like the office itself, was large and spacious. It denoted just how important Isard's role as the Director of Intelligence was. Courscant was a planet of over a trillion residents. Because of that, space was at a premium and in general was not superfluously wasted. All the more reason the immense wood paneled room was kept so Spartan. With the Dark Lord spending most his time on his precious Death Star and Lord Malice patrolling the galaxy, Isard was essentially the ruler of the capital. A fact she loved more than anything else.

Pressing a finger on the intercom switch, she replied, "Send him in."

Isard sat back in her chair and steepled her fingers. The door some meters away slid open with barely a noise and Isard's visitor stepped in. A middle-aged, balding man dressed almost completely in black, save for crimson-red shoulder pads. A thin leather strap laced his eyes, seeming to block out his vision. From the corners of his mouth and outlining his chin were lines of mysterious tattoos that hinted to his true nature. His hands were cast in long gloves of jet black that were echoed by the lower half of his body. His like colored belt was plain, yet oddly appeared to be missing something.

Isard gave him an insincere smile and directed him to take a seat in front of her desk. The man gave a military bow that Isard knew to be equally insincere and took his place.

"It is an honor to be in your presence, Madame Director." The man told her.

"Likewise, Lord Jerec. I'm glad that you found the time out of your busy schedule to meet with me."

"One is never too busy for Director Isard, Madame." Jerec countered.

Isard leaned forward and rested her hands on her desk. "We both understand the frivolities of small talk, so excuse me for getting to why I brought you here."

"Yes," Jerec smiled in concession. "I never have been one for small talk."

"I have been looking over your record…quite impressive." Isard said slyly, picking up a sheet of flimsiplast. "You're currently governing over the planet Sulon, it says. I understand that you're in control of great wealth and are in the process of procuring a variant of our command ships. Planning to go the way of the warlord, Jerec?"

"I have pledged my life to the service of our great Empire, I assure you Madame. That is merely a rumor, spread by my political enemies." Jerec suppressed a grimace. Isard seemed to know everything. The purchase of that Super Star Destroyer was to remain a closely guarded secret. Someone would die for letting that slip. "I assure you, I have no plans to procure such a ship," he lied.

"Really?" Isard said in mock surprise. "Interesting…I find that quite difficult to believe."

Jerec looked as shocked as a man with no eyes could. Just how much did the leader of Imperial Intelligence know?

"You see, we have something in common." Isard sat back again in her chair.

"Do we?"

Isard grinned, this time sincerely. "We are bound, you see, by our hatred for the Dark Lord, Vader."

Jerec sat up as straight as possible. "Madame Director, you speak heresy! Whoever spreads these heinous lies surely deserves death. You must know that the Dark Lord would strike you down himself for such traitorous speech!"

"Yes," she laughed. "I do. But I also know that Vader has been a thorn in our collective sides ever since the inception of this great Empire. He is a loose-cannon who does what he sees fit. Vader has no interest in the good of the Empire. But for those matters neither do you, so I won't bore you with my patriotism."

"Madame Director, this is an outrage! I will not sit here and let you falsely accuse me of being a traitor!" Jerec shot up to his feet.

"You will sit, Jerec," Isard said firmly. "I have a story to tell you."

Jerec balled his fist, but held his anger in check. He was eager to hear why the Director had called him from the Outer Rim to the capital. He had never liked the Director, but turning her in to the proper authorities could wait. Perhaps, in gratitude, the Dark Lord would appoint him the new Director in Isard's place. That would go far to solidify Jerec's power base. Nevertheless, he would wait to hear why he had been bothered. 

"I am sure you are high enough in the Imperial hierarchy to know that the late Emperor Palpatine was indeed a Sith Lord. No mere politician who had the uncanny ability to over throw a deep rooted government," she began. "The Emperor has had three apprentices in his life time. The first was a Darth Maul. A mindless killing machine who would do whatever his master wished. But of course he was bested by the late General Kenobi."

Jerec sat back again, confused.

"It was not long after that the Emperor recruited a disillusioned Jedi Master Dooku, the count of Serenno. He of course is better known for leading the Confederacy during the Clone Wars. As Darth Tyranus, Dooku was a rather capable apprentice to his master. He was a powerful Jedi and an even more powerful Sith Lord. But he was no match for the power of Anakin Skywalker and his tenure as a Sith Lord was…cut short. And Skywalker took his place as apprentice under the name Darth Vader. Does this sound familiar, Jerec…?" 

"I know this tale...but I fail to see what it has to do with me." Jerec said with all his previous diplomacy gone.

"Many know that story," Isard continued. "But only a select few know the whole story."

Jerec put his hand to his chin, "By all means, Madame Director, inform me off the real story." Jerec was sure that his cockiness would do well to hide his growing fear. Isard was hitting dangerously close to Jerec's closely guarded secret. But there was no way she could know the truth, no one did.

"In due time. I have here with me two biographies. Both have some very interesting information," Isard told him. She picked up another sheet of flimsiplast and pretended to study it. In actuality she knew exactly what it said. "This one is about a Jedi of the Old Republic. Born sightless, but strong enough in the Force to overcome his handicap. A Knight during the Wars, he actually avoided the conflict due to an assignment looking for rare artifacts beyond the Outer Rim. When he returned, the Jedi were all but extinct. He was recruited by a High Inquisitor Tremayne to be an agent of the Empire. He accepted, of course and became one of the fabled Dark Side Adepts—'Dark' Jedi working under the Emperor and Darth Vader to help hunt the surviving Jedi and maintain order. Do you know of the man whom I speak, Jerec?" 

The man balled his fist and attempted to quell the fierce rage inside him. He gave the director a lethal smile. "It is foolish of me to think any information would slip your grasp, Isard." His smile faded and his brows furrowed. "But given this knowledge, it seems you are a fool to tempt my anger!" As if the man had cast some form of ghastly spell, a glass statue at the end of Isard's desk shattered into a million pieces…oddly enough Isard was not the least bit phased.

"Perhaps…however the Dark Side Adepts do not exist!" Isard replied with a mocking grin that was impossibly more devilish than the previous one. "It is a fairy tale told to the Imperial elite to keep them in line. The idea that super-powered beings lay in wait to rectify any incompetence."

Jerec leaned forward in the chair, "Then how would you care to explain my power?" Jerec called the power of the dark side within him subtly focusing it on Isard's throat. But like a menacing phantom, a vise grip formed around the man's invisible hands, holding them away from the imperial director with great ease. Not only was this opposition mysterious, but its power far exceeded Jerec's. He looked—as much as an eyeless man could—in astonishment at the unremarkable event. The power was not Isard's—no…it was someone, something else whose power allowed it to mask itself…

"In due time, Lord Jerec, your question will be answered. But allow me to answer your first question now. You see you are not a Dark Side Adept, and long has it been since your days as a Jedi of the Old Republic…yes. You were about twelve when he took you. He took you away from the Jedi Order and promised you power you could only dream of. I suppose you could not be blamed…for how could a mere child, though trained as a Jedi, resist the charisma of Count Dooku? Yes, how could such a powerful Jedi Master as Dooku become but an apprentice once again? He tried to trick the trickster. He learned the ways of your dark side from Darth Sidious and passed them on to you. And when the time was right, the two of you would kill Palpatine and take his place as the heirs to the Sith. But your training was piecemeal at best. Dooku had little time to feign the Emperor's game and instruct you. Your training lapsed over the years, but you and Dooku were bound and determined to succeed. And perhaps you might have...if not for our common enemy…" she smiled. "Yes, Vader killed your master, didn't he? Took away all that you had fought for. And no one even knew you existed anymore. Your training was never quite complete. But what you do know of the dark side is fueled by the rage you feel whenever you hear the name Darth Vader."

"It appears you have all the facts, Isard," Jerec growled. "What is your intention, hmm? Blackmail?"

Isard gave an innocent look. "Not at all, Lord Jerec. I simply point out how useful a man you are. Understand I want you to help me…if you do the reward will be substantial to say the least."

"Isard, you are the least trustworthy being on this planet. I suppose you think you have be in your trap…but understand that we are bound in our heresy against Vader's empire. If you mean to expose me, you leave yourself just as vulnerable. Our fates are intertwined."

"Exactly," Isard said with delight. "Which means we _can_ trust each other. Now are you ready to hear my vision?"

Jerec was silent, his sense alive, searching, waiting for any sense of danger.

"Together, we can destroy Vader's empire!"

Jerec scoffed. "And rebuild Palpatine's in its place? Your devotion to that fool is something we do not share."

Isard dismissed the comment. "No, Lord Jerec, together we will build our own empire. The two of us together. Collectively we have the ability to topple Vader and take control!"

Jerec was silent, in contemplation. "Just what is it you think I have?"

"The same thing I have…power. While mine is purely political, you have access to the vary power Vader wields. Which will be important to our success."

"You think I can move against Vader and Malice? Even I am not so vain as to believe that. Which leaves me to why I must turn down your offer, Director."

"Really now?"

"You see, just recently I have uncovered a certain…key to defeating Vader. I had intended to use it against the Emperor, but our Dark Lord took care of that for me. When I have this power to destroy Vader and his son, I will rule! I don't need you."

"I see." Isard leaned forward. "I must say that the tale of the Valley of the Jedi is an intriguing one."

"What! How could you know about that? Only a handful of beings in the galaxy know of its existence!"


End file.
